Re: [PATCH] {maint} repo: don't commit generated files in the git repository anymore

[Jim Meyering]

Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> On 12/09/2011 02:21 PM, Jim Meyering wrote:
>> Hi Ralf, It sounds like you're confusing with build-from-release-tarball.
> No, I am not.

Then you must be looking at different projects than I am.
There are hundreds of GNU projects that have stopped
version-controlling generated files like "configure".
Here are a few that come to mind that have kept up with best practices:

    autoconf
    bison
    coreutils
    cpio
    diffutils
    findutils
    gcal
    gnupg
    grep
    gsasl
    gss
    gzip
    m4
    parted
    patch
    sed
    shishi
    tar

None of the above repositories version-control the autoconf-generated
"configure" file.  Not even autoconf itself.  Just because a few other
projects continue to do that does not make it a good idea.  It has been
clear for more than a decade that it is in fact counter-productive to
VC generated files.

To verify my assertion, you can run this command:
    git ls-files '*configure'
For the above repositories, that generates no output.

>> There is a very long tradition of maintainer/developer build-from-VC
>> requiring more (and very recent) tools than usual.
>
> No, this is not true. Probably all GNU projects have carried their
> generated files inside of their VCSs.

Contradicting *again*, with nothing to support your claim?

At least some of the above projects stopped version-controlling
generated files more than five years ago.