Bruce Korb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Bruno Haible wrote: >> Jim Meyering wrote: >> >>>I learned long enough ago that >>>files like Makefile, Makefile.in, configure, etc. are generated, >>>so that their being writable isn't a big deal. But still, for >>>novices, ... >> Would it help you if we consequently mark every generated file >> (except >> generated doc - info, html, pdf, ps) with >> DO NOT EDIT! GENERATED AUTOMATICALLY! >> in the first or second line? >> Bruno > > Or maybe both of these lines :) > > -*- buffer-read-only: t -*- vi: set ro: > DO NOT EDIT! GENERATED AUTOMATICALLY!
Good idea. That's a nice compromise. People who are motivated to modify a file in spite of such advisory lines can always work around them. In emacs, it's as easy as C-xC-q -- and in vi, :w! Now, I'm thinking of changing coreutils' bootstrap script to add such lines to the files it creates/copies, rather than making them read-only. Thanks! P.S. I'll join the other discussion on my recent gnulib changes soon. I'm indisposed for another hour or so.
