Re: Installing COPYING whatever the previous `value'

[Ralf Corsepius]

Am Fre, 2002-10-11 um 10.20 schrieb Akim Demaille:
> 
> I'm not sure Automake is entitled, even with --force, to override
> COPYING.  I just happen to run autoreconf -fvi on Flex to upgrade it,
> and Automake replaced the BSD license with the GPL...
I know you won't like this answer, but I presume you know the default
mode of automake is --gnu. So if flex comes under a BSD-License it is
not a gnu package in the automake --gnu sense, and therefore should use
AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS=foreign rsp. AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign]).

Besides this, I also think overriding COPYING is a bad idea, even in gnu
mode, because package authors might not want to have their COPYING
overriden by a "later GPL".

May-be automake needs another option, say --init (to override
everything) rsp. --update (to update Makefile.ins only)

Ralf