The commentary in build-aux/git-version-gen illustrates how the files
.version and .tarball-version could be generated:
$(top_srcdir)/.version:
echo '$(VERSION)' > $@-t
mv $@-t $@
dist-hook:
echo '$(VERSION)' > $(distdir)/.tarball-version
I'm curious why one recipe writes a temporary file first, whereas the
other writes the target directly. Is the distinction meaningful?
Is this specific to Automake, or perhaps a more general
security/portability consideration?
I'd appreciate a pointer if this is already documented somewhere - my
searches came up dry.
Thanks,
--
Basil
