avoid "make distcheck" failure: newly-created man/*.1 files not removed

[Jim Meyering]

FYI, "make distcheck" was failing when it noticed
that all of the man/*.1 files were left behind.
They shouldn't even have been built, from a just-unpacked tarball.
Including the new .version file in the distribution tarball,
_with its time stamp_ keeps "make" from regenerating those files
in the first place.

        Avoid "make distcheck" failure: newly-created man/*.1 files not removed
        * Makefile.am (EXTRA_DIST): Add .version.
        (.version): New rule.
        (dist-hook): Don't create $(distdir)/.version here, now that it's
        being distributed.
        * man/Makefile.am (common_dep): Use ../.version, not ../VERSION.
        (../VERSION): Remove rule.
        * GNUmakefile (dummy): Create .version, not VERSION.
        Add an extra "...:= $(shell..." statement to ensure that
        .version exists even when the preceding code is not run.
        * .gitignore: Remove both .version and VERSION.

diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f5ba5fd..5983d4c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -5,13 +5,11 @@
 */.deps
 *~
 .gdb-history
-.version
 ABOUT-NLS
 INSTALL
 Makefile
 Makefile.in
 THANKS-to-translators
-VERSION
 aclocal.m4
 autom4te.cache
 config.cache
diff --git a/GNUmakefile b/GNUmakefile
index 9502203..af73b7e 100644
--- a/GNUmakefile
+++ b/GNUmakefile
@@ -49,11 +49,16 @@ ifeq (0,$(MAKELEVEL))
     ifneq ($(_curr-ver),$(VERSION))
       $(info INFO: running autoreconf for new version string: $(_curr-ver))
       dummy := $(shell rm -rf autom4te.cache; autoreconf)
-      dummy := $(shell echo $(_curr-ver) > VERSION)
+      dummy := $(shell echo $(_curr-ver) > .version)
+      _created_version_file = 1
     endif
   endif
 endif

+ifneq ($(_created_version_file),1)
+  dummy := $(shell test -f .version || echo $(VERSION) > .version)
+endif
+
 include $(srcdir)/Makefile.cfg
 include $(srcdir)/Makefile.maint

diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 56f7b85..9965f39 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 SUBDIRS = lib src doc man po tests gnulib-tests
 EXTRA_DIST = Makefile.cfg Makefile.maint GNUmakefile \
   .prev-version THANKS-to-translators THANKStt.in \
+  .version \
   .vg-suppressions \
   .x-po-check \
   .x-sc_GPL_version \
@@ -65,12 +66,12 @@ check-root:
 rm_subst = \
   s!(rm -f (rm\b|\$$\(bin_PROGRAMS\)$$))!$$1 > /dev/null 2>&1 || /bin/$$1!

-# Arrange so that .version appears only in distribution tarballs,
-# never in a checked-out repository.
+.version:
+       echo $(VERSION) > address@hidden && mv address@hidden $@
+
 # The perl substitution is to change some key uses of "rm" to "/bin/rm".
 # See the rm_subst comment for details.
 dist-hook:
-       echo $(VERSION) > $(distdir)/.version
        perl -pi -e '$(rm_subst)' $(distdir)/src/Makefile.in

 distcheck-hook:
diff --git a/man/Makefile.am b/man/Makefile.am
index 6cad1a4..a4351d6 100644
--- a/man/Makefile.am
+++ b/man/Makefile.am
@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@ man_aux = $(dist_man_MANS:.1=.x)
 EXTRA_DIST = $(man_aux) $(NO_INSTALL_PROGS_DEFAULT:%=%.x) help2man
 MAINTAINERCLEANFILES = $(dist_man_MANS)

-# Depend on ../VERSION to get version number changes.
-common_dep = ../VERSION
+# Depend on ../.version to get version number changes.
+common_dep = ../.version

 # Note that arch depends on uname.c
 arch.1:                $(common_dep)   $(srcdir)/arch.x        ../src/uname.c
@@ -198,6 +198,3 @@ check-programs-vs-x:
            || { echo missing $$p.x 1>&2; status=1; };  \
        done;                                           \
        exit $$status
-
-../VERSION:
-       echo $(VERSION) > address@hidden && mv address@hidden $@
--
1.5.4.rc5.1.ge6bfe