[sane-devel] Proposal to remove autoconf-generated files from the source repository

[Povilas Kanapickas]

Hi all,

I propose we remove files from the source repository that are generated
by autoconf and friends and ask the developers to do that.

The primary motivation for this change is that the content of the
generated files depends on the autotools version. Thus it makes harder
for the developers to collaborate as they must use exactly matching
autotools versions. Additionally the project history is cluttered by
changes to the generated files, but we could perhaps live with that.

A PR has been opened here and received some discussion already:
https://gitlab.com/sane-project/backends/merge_requests/72

We could keep inclusion of the generated files to the source tarballs
that we distribute so that the recipients of the tarballs don't need to
have autotools installed. Additionally, this way we could be sure that
this change does not break on weird platforms that we don't currently do
testing on.

The approach suggested in this email is how most projects that use
autotools operate. We would be going through a common and tested path.

Does anyone know reasons why this wouldn't work in our use case? Does
anyone's workflow depend on autotools files being present in the default
source checkout?

Regards,
Povilas