On Sat, May 31, 2025 at 10:19 PM Karl Berry <k...@freefriends.org> wrote: > Or, wait, let's back up. Why is bootstrap in the tarball in the first > place? Does every package distribute it? No, I see it's not in the GNU > make or autoconf tarballs. So I guess automake should not include it > either? I can't find any record of an explicit decision about it in the > ChangeLog or elsewhere, though Stefano mentioned that it is so:
We discussed in the Texinfo project a few years ago and decided not to start distributing the bootstrap script, after someone asked us to start doing so. https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2022-05/msg00000.html I wrote at the time (in a private email): > Yes, I am still opposed. I believe it is wrong to include it in the > distribution as it can delete or overwrite files from the distribution, > with no way to get them back, unlike Makefile rules (e.g. "make distclean").
