Paul Eggert wrote:
> There's no need to keep gnulib-cache.m4, since gnulib-tool is invoked only
> from Makefile.in.
I disagree. The gnulib documentation ([1], paragraph 1) recommends to put also
gnulib-cache.m4 into the repository.
The reason is that when a file is renamed in gnulib or some module dependency
is removed in gnulib, what happens at the next invocation of sync-from-gnulib?
- When gnulib-cache.m4 is present, gnulib-tool will add a file under the
new name and remove the old file. Because it knows that the file came from
gnulib.
- When gnulib-cache.m4 is missing, gnulib-tool will just add a file under
the new name, but leave the old file around, because it looks like that
file was genuine Emacs source.
So, if you routinely remove gnulib-cache.m4, over time the repository will
accumulate garbage files. Sometimes they don't hurt (if it's just a .c file),
but it can really get in the way and cause trouble (if it's a .h file).
Bruno
[1] http://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/VCS-Issues.html
