On Tue, Feb 3, 2026, at 11:50 AM, Collin Funk wrote: > >> This is the third (and last) problem with maint.mk that I tripped >> over by simply copying the file into the Autoconf tree and then >> running "make syntax-check". I don't mean to be That Guy, but it >> seems like whoever wrote these changes can't have tested them *at >> all*. :-( > > It looks like Autoconf copies the file and commits it to git. This > makes it show up in 'vc-list-files' so the syntax checks are run > against it.
Right. I believe this usage predates the existence of Gnulib modules by quite some time, but in any event I wouldn't want to add more dependencies to usage of autoconf from its VCS checkout. > Most (all?) other packages import the maintainer-makefile module. In > that case, 'vc-list-files' doesn't show maint.mk and there is no worry > of expressions/strings matching themselves. That does explain why these went unnoticed. The file is checked into git within Gnulib itself, though, so I suggest that in the future `make syntax-check` should be part of the tests for updates to maint.mk within Gnulib. zw
