> Sorry. Here is a possible answer about *how*. > > build distdir > for f in $DIST_FORMATS; do > case $f in > gz) ... > bzip2) ... > zip) ... > ... > esac > done > erase distdir
"gz" is a suffix, "bzip2" is the name of the program that does the compression and "zip" is both the suffix and the program. First and foremost I would recommend being consistent. :-) No matter what you choose, you still need to have both be specifiable so you are not boxed into cutting a new release in order to support a combination you didn't plan for. > for f in $DIST_FORMATS; do > eval suffix=\$${f}_SUFFIX > case $f in > gzip) ... > bzip2) ... > zip) ... > compress) ... > none | cat) ... > ... > esac > done An amusing exercise for the reader: add "rpm" and "pkg" formats :-)