[CMake] Re: 'make dist' like target

[Alan W. Irwin]

> "Alan W. Irwin"
> <irwin at beluga.phys.uvic.ca> writes:
> 
> > We have used CPACK_SOURCE_IGNORE_FILES to ignore all backup (*~)
> > files, all CVS directories, and some directories that are specific to
> our project.  These regex's (not file globs) are a powerful means of
> > deciding exactly what you want to go into your source tarball from
> > the source tree.
> 
> Mmmh... sounds like a maintenance nightmare to update this ignore list;
> it will probably result into looking manually into each tarball whether
> there are really only the wanted files.
> 
> I like automake's way much more where I can specify exactly what I want.

Well, we specify exactly what we want by being careful what files we put
into our CVS repository.  So there is little to filter out in the ignore
list when we make the tarball and there is zero maintenance (other than the
original decisions about what goes into the CVS repository).  Autotools
tried to impose additional rules for tarball exclusion by default. As a
group we didn't like that since we generally wanted the same source files
available to both our CVS and tarball developers.  So that meant lots of
maintenance of EXTRA_DIST lists when PLplot was built with autotools to get
what we wanted. Thus, CMake is an excellent fit for us in this respect (and
many others). I grant your implicit point that CMake is not a good fit for
those who insist on the exact tarball exclusion rules that come by default
with autotools.  However, CMake is a very different world then autotools,
and ex-autotools users will keep running afoul of the differences unless
they are willing to be flexible.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the Yorick front-end to PLplot (yplot.sf.net); the
Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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