Joel Denny re-raised the issue on the bison list [1] that it can be rather confusing that a developer working with GNUmakefile and git-version-gen can type 'make install', and end up installing a stale version string.
[1] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2008-07/msg00016.html The GNU Coding Standards state: "If possible, write the install target rule so that it does not modify anything in the directory where the program was built, provided ‘make all’ has just been done. This is convenient for building the program under one user name and installing it under another." http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#Standard-Targets However, I'm now of the opinion that this quote should be taken in context, and only apply to tarballs (ie. when .tarball-version is present), and not to development. Would anyone object to modifying GNUmakefile to also cause recompilation for new version info prior to any 'make install' of a VCS snapshot development build, when .tarball-version is lacking? -- Eric Blake
