Re: [Bug-gsl] autogen.sh overwrites file INSTALL

[Brian Gough]

At Thu, 10 Jun 2010 22:16:58 -0400,
Peter Johansson wrote:
> I noticed that when I run `./autogen.sh' it will run delete the file 
> `INSTALL' and instead create a link to 
> `/usr/local/share/automake-1.11/INSTALL'. This is because automake is 
> run with '--foce-missing'. If I instead run 'autoreconf -ivf' as 
> recommended by autogen.sh, the same thing happens: the INSTALL file is 
> replaced by a link to...
> 
> I understand the --force option is desired in order to avoid missing 
> upgrades of other automake provided files such as the script missing. On 
> the other hand, the current behavior is a bit annoying as it took me 
> some time to get back the INSTALL file (not very familiar with git:( ), 
> and I figure the risk that the generic FSF INSTALL goes into a release 
> tarball rather than GSL's INSTALL is quite significant.
> 
> AFAIK there is no option in Automake to '--install' only some files and 
> not, e.g., `INSTALL'. The simplest solution, IMVHO, would be to rename 
> the file INSTALL and distribute both this renamed file together with the 
> generic INSTALL. But it's likely that the Automake people have a better 
> solution.

I agree, it's a minor annoyance that it get overwritten.  I've been
leaving it alone because there are existing references to the GSL
specific info in INSTALL out there which can't be changed (e.g. in the
printed manual).  I think the best thing would be for automake to
handle the INSTALL file in a different way (for example, only updating
the generic part), the generic instructions aren't always that useful
by themselves.

-- 
Brian Gough