Re: remove generated files

[Jim Meyering]

Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden> wrote:
>> +We've opted to keep only the highest-level sources in the GIT repository.
>> +This eases our maintenance burden, (fewer merges etc.), but imposes more
>> +requirements on anyone wishing to build from the just-checked-out sources.
>> +For example, you have to use the latest stable versions of the maintainer
>> +tools we depend upon, including:
>> +
>> +- Autoconf <http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/>
>> +- Automake <http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/>
>> +- Gzip <http://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/>
>> +- Perl <http://www.cpan.org/>
>> +- Rsync <http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/>
>> +- Tar <http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/>
>
> Sorry if I'm too dense to see it right now, but why are gzip, rsync, and
> tar needed to build off a git Autoconf tree?  Merely as dependencies of
> git?  In that case, aren't there other transports as well?

Hi Ralf,

They're not needed to build autoconf itself, but rather
to support some of the other things you might want to do.
tar and gzip are required to build a tarball ("make dist").
When possible, I run "make distcheck" even for packages that
I don't maintain.  Then they're required.

And to upload a tarball, you might well use rsync.  I do.

I can see how it'd be better to remove at least rsync, considering
what the preceding paragraph says.  Either way is fine with me.