Re: [libvirt] [libvirt-php][PATCH 1/5] maint: Drop INSTALL install-sh and missing

On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 07:34:55AM +0100, Michal Privoznik wrote: > These files are automatically generated by automake and ignored > in .gitingore. Moreover, with each new version of automake their > contents change (see f5974fcbd5). Instead of tracking them, drop > them from repository completely. > > Signed-off-by: Michal Privoznik <mprivozn(a)redhat.com&gt; > --- > INSTALL | 370 --------------------------------------------- > install-sh | 501 ------------------------------------------------------------- > missing | 215 -------------------------- > 3 files changed, 1086 deletions(-) > delete mode 100644 INSTALL > delete mode 100755 install-sh > delete mode 100755 missing Yeah, since those are generated and the content depends on the version of autotools, it's not desirable to have them part of the repo. A different story would be with other required files like NEWS, README, COPYING and AUTHORS. Although, since INSTALL only contains some generic info about installation which is also irrelevant, because after cloning the repo and reading INSTALL a novice user could still have no idea how to build it, since there's no configure until after reconf was executed by autogen. I just think it might be worth putting this initial repo setup to the README file, I know, we assume everyone who decides to clone the repo "must" already know what to do with it,

call me old-fashioned but I think it's worth to have this single line in the README, it doesn't cost us anything and might actually help someone :).

As an example, in libvirt, we only mention configure in the README file which is generated, so for someone who's not familiar with autotools is this information as good as nothing - I refuse to take "use google" for an answer here.