(gettext.info)Files under CVS

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13.6.2 Files to put under CVS version control
---------------------------------------------

   There are basically three ways to deal with generated files in the
context of a CVS repository, such as `configure' generated from
`configure.ac', `PARSER.c' generated from `PARSER.y', or
`po/Makefile.in.in' autoinstalled by `gettextize' or `autopoint'.

  1. All generated files are always committed into the repository.

  2. All generated files are committed into the repository occasionally,
     for example each time a release is made.

  3. Generated files are never committed into the repository.

   Each of these three approaches has different advantages and
drawbacks.

  1. The advantage is that anyone can check out the CVS at any moment
     and gets a working build.  The drawbacks are:  1a. It requires
     some frequent "cvs commit" actions by the maintainers.  1b. The
     repository grows in size quite fast.

  2. The advantage is that anyone can check out the CVS, and the usual
     "./configure; make" will work.  The drawbacks are:  2a. The one who
     checks out the repository needs tools like GNU `automake', GNU
     `autoconf', GNU `m4' installed in his PATH; sometimes he even
     needs particular versions of them.  2b. When a release is made and
     a commit is made on the generated files, the other developers get
     conflicts on the generated files after doing "cvs update".
     Although these conflicts are easy to resolve, they are annoying.

  3. The advantage is less work for the maintainers.  The drawback is
     that anyone who checks out the CVS not only needs tools like GNU
     `automake', GNU `autoconf', GNU `m4' installed in his PATH, but
     also that he needs to perform a package specific pre-build step
     before being able to "./configure; make".

   For the first and second approach, all files modified or brought in
by the occasional `gettextize' invocation and update should be
committed into the CVS.

   For the third approach, the maintainer can omit from the CVS
repository all the files that `gettextize' mentions as "copy".
Instead, he adds to the `configure.ac' or `configure.in' a line of the
form

     AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.18.1)

and adds to the package's pre-build script an invocation of
`autopoint'.  For everyone who checks out the CVS, this `autopoint'
invocation will copy into the right place the `gettext' infrastructure
files that have been omitted from the CVS.

   The version number used as argument to `AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION' is
the version of the `gettext' infrastructure that the package wants to
use.  It is also the minimum version number of the `autopoint' program.
So, if you write `AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.11.5)' then the developers
can have any version >= 0.11.5 installed; the package will work with
the 0.11.5 infrastructure in all developers' builds.  When the
maintainer then runs gettextize from, say, version 0.12.1 on the
package, the occurrence of `AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.11.5)' will be
changed into `AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.12.1)', and all other developers
that use the CVS will henceforth need to have GNU `gettext' 0.12.1 or
newer installed.