> Maybe a better wording could be used in README-alpha? I just don't > understand why those instructions have to be in a seperate file.
Maybe they don't have to, but that's not what I'm talking about. It is the file's purpose that's important, not its contents. The bootstrap script requires that $checkout_only_file points to a file that is present only in the repository. It is bootstrap's way to ensure that it is executed in the source tree checked out from the repository. Only if that file is present does bootstrap proceed (unless --force is used, but that's another story). Now, README-alpha may well be present in a distributed tarball. That happens for alpha versions (that's actually what that file serves for: it provides additional instructions for the users of alpha releases). Using it as a checkout_only_file makes it possible to run bootstrap in a source tree extracted from the tarball, which should never be done. To summarize: the file checkout_only_file points to must reside only in the repository. Its contents does not matter. FWIW, it may even be emtpty. Oh, I see now, I checked in the following: 2009-04-11 Alfred M. Szmidt <[email protected]> * bootstrap.conf (checkout_only_file): Removed variable. * README-hacking: New file.
