Re: Add support for EXTRA_DIST_LINKS

[Jacob Bachmeyer]

madmurphy wrote:
> I have created a patch for Automake to support a new Makefile variable
> named EXTRA_DIST_LINKS. The purpose of the variable is that of creating
> symlinks for the distributed archive.
>
> The syntax is very simple: a space-separated list of tokens of the form
> DEST:SOURCE – it is identical to that of AC_CONFIG_LINKS(dest:source ...)
> in the configure.ac file.
>   

The GNU coding standards specifically say not to do this:
"Don’t include any symbolic links in the distribution itself. If the tar 
file contains symbolic links, then people cannot even unpack it on 
systems that don’t support symbolic links. Also, don’t use multiple 
names for one file in different directories, because certain file 
systems cannot handle this and that prevents unpacking the 
distribution." (section 7.3 "Making Releases")

AC_CONFIG_LINKS makes the links when configure is run, after the 
distribution has been unpacked.  If I remember correctly, Autoconf also 
falls back to hardlinks or copying the files if the system does not 
support symbolic links.


-- Jacob