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Bug#397939: Consensus about what a proper clean target is?



On Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 12:16:17AM +0100, Bas Wijnen wrote:
> At this moment however, I don't think there is consensus yet that it is
> always better to remove all generated files, including
> autotools-generated stuff, in the clean target.

Well, I haven't seen many people claiming that it is really bad to do
this so far, so I'll try to make sure that we can record this as
consensus.  Please, if anyone thinks that it should be allowed for the
clean target to keep some generated files, speak up.  And please argue
why you think so, so we can flame^Wtalk about it. :-)

I'll have one argument myself first: If a generated file is needed by
the build, and it cannot be regenerated for some reason, for example as
a workaround for a bug (such as #441126; read only the second e-mail) or
to bootstrap a compiler build, then this is acceptable.  However, this
file may not be overwritten during the build.  If overwriting is
desired, it should be copied, the copy should be overwritten, and the
copy must be removed by the clean target.  In other words, it must be
used as a source file by the build.

This mail will automatically go to -policy.  I've added the
autotools-dev PTS address.  Followups probably won't do that, since they
don't have the X-PTS-Approved header.  So if you're not reading this on
-policy, but have an opinion, please follow the discussion there (or
through the BTS).

Thanks,
Bas

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