EXTRA_DIST vs. deep hierarchies of java sources

[Dalibor Topic]

Heya,

I've been recently fighting against a weird little problem with 
EXTRA_DIST. Given a deep hierarchy of source files, like say Kaffe's 
class library, automake generates a mkdir rule for dist that includes 
all directories in this hierarchy, one by one. For a class library like 
Kaffe's, that list can get pretty long.

Unfortunately, if the hierarchy is really big and deep and contains long 
paths, then the resulting mkdir command can run out of command line 
length of the shell used to execute, which leads to fascinating error 
messages with make dist.

Is there some way to fix that, other than to use a dist-hook, or make 
dist in /tmp :) ?

cheers,
dalibor topic