bug#40699: "dist Hook" documentation in manual is incorrect or unclear about write permissions

[Vincent Lefevre]

On 2020-04-18 19:11:14 -0400, Nick Bowler wrote:
> I guess the note about dist-hooks when packaging from a read-only srcdir
> was added because of my bug report[1].
> 
> I have never noticed read-only _directories_ in the distdir before (I
> have assumed they are always created read-write so that Automake can
> put distributed files in them) but I also don't ever put directory
> names in EXTRA_DIST which is the case specifically called out in the
> documentation.
> 
> I think it's kind of weird that distribution permissions can depend on
> how the package tarball was unpacked so since then I always use
> dist-hook to fix up permissions in $(distdir) before anything else.
> 
> [1] https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=10878

I can reproduce the issue with "make dist" and code like the example

     EXTRA_DIST = doc
     dist-hook:
             rm -rf `find $(distdir)/doc -type d -name .svn`

when the directory is read-only. But if the directory is not
read-only, "make distcheck" does not fail. So it seems that
"make distcheck" no longer tests "make dist" from a read-only
source tree (it tests the build from a read-only source tree,
but for "make dist", it first extracts the tarball in the
build directory then runs "make dist" from the new copy of
the source tree, which is not read-only).

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <address@hidden> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
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