Hi Paul, You write in <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=56749>:
> I put the latter script into the gzip > repository but did not put the auxiliary files there. I did not notice > the error in my testing, since the three auxiliary files were there in > my working copy. I'm sorry that the mechanism that I coded in July got you into making a mistake. But I strongly object against the backwards move regarding the autopull.sh / autogen.sh *concepts*. The concepts, as I described them in <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2022-07/msg00053.html> <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2022-07/msg00078.html> are that * There are two preparation phases for a git repo, before the user can run configure: './autopull.sh' then './autogen.sh'. * These are *interfaces* between the package's code and the developer. Like the *interface* behind the 'configure' script. The purpose is that — over time, as more and more packages adopt these two script names — developers can just use these two script names as part of their habits. The implementation (bootstrap script, bootstrap-funclib.sh function library) are just an implementation of these concepts. If your implementation works better than mine (by avoiding some possible pitfalls), then that's fine. But what I object to is that you are killing the incentive for more packages to adopt the autopull.sh / autogen.sh separation. In particular: * It's better to recommend in README-hacking $ # 1. Fetch auxiliary files from the network. $ ./autopull.sh $ $ # 2. Generate files locally. $ ./autogen.sh because that's the two command names that the developer should remember and get used to work with. If you write $ ./bootstrap --pull # 1. Fetch some files from the network. $ ./bootstrap --gen # 2. Generate other files locally. then we have different command names for the same thing, and it encourages packages to clump two different things into a single script. * I object against omitting autopull.sh and autogen.sh from what gets copied into the package. * I object against documentation such as running @samp{./bootstrap --pull} or @file{autopull.sh} because two different commands (with 'or') does not help in creating a habit that is easy to remember and easy to use. Bruno
