Whys is `make dist` packaging gmo files?

[Andrew Smith]

Hi

I inherited a project that uses autotools. It didn't have any .po files 
when I got it but I added a couple, so now there is this in configure.in:

dnl Add the languages which your application supports here.
ALL_LINGUAS="sv zh_TW"
AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT

They compile and install and run fine. But when I do `make dist` I end 
up with sv.gmo and zh_TW.gmo (as well as the expected sv.po, zh_TW.po) 
in my po dir. I thought these were binary and not portable?

Would someone share why this may be happening and what I can do to avoid it?

Thanks in advance.

Andrew