automake (GNU automake) 1.9.6 autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.60 HP-UX omztdv1 B.11.23 U ia64
I have recently discovered this in the manual: "By default, data files are not included in a distribution. Of course, you can use the dist_ prefix to change this on a per-variable basis." So instead of this in Makefile.am: sysconf_DATA = $(top_srcdir)/test.txt I should have used this (because test.txt is not constructed): dist_sysconf_DATA = $(top_srcdir)/test.txt However, I've regularly run 'make distcheck' and it gives no error with the original sysconf_DATA. How can this be?