[self-follow-up] I left out a step from my explanation.
At 2026-07-21T00:35:40-0500, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > If you're doing an out-of-tree build, then the presence of ".version" > in your Git working copy can confuse a human because its contents can > get very stale, but it doesn't confuse the build system--I'll explain > below. You can delete it and start an out-of-tree build anew. > > The rules for generating these files are as follows. > > $ nl -ba Makefile.am | sed -n 872,877p > 872 # Version files - see script "build-aux/git-version-gen". > 873 .version: > 874 $(AM_V_GEN)echo $(VERSION) > $@-t && mv $@-t $@ > 875 dist-hook: > 876 $(AM_V_GEN)echo $(VERSION) > $(distdir)/.tarball-version > 877 Where does the make(1) macro `VERSION` get its definition? Earlier in the file. $ nl -ba Makefile.am | sed -n 509,530p 509 # 'VERSION' is generated by gnulib script git-version-gen, using the 510 # command 'git describe': 511 # 512 # - From a git repository: if the current commit corresponds to a 513 # tag, then 'VERSION' is simply the tag (e.g. 1.22.3). Otherwise 514 # 'VERSION' has the following format: 515 # <tag>-<nb_commits>-<commit> 516 # 517 # With: 518 # . tag: the most recent tag reachable from the current commit 519 # . nb_commits: number of commits between the most recent tag and 520 # the current commit. 521 # . current commit, abbreviated. 522 # For example: 1.22.3.real.434-5aafd 523 # The version is stored in .version. 524 # 525 # - From a tarball, the version is taken from .tarball-version 526 # 527 # REVISION is the full revision given by git-version-gen, which can 528 # have non-alphanumeric symbols. 529 # 530 # Also see configure.ac for the related SHORT_VERSION macro. Regards, Branden
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