Create releases that don't require GNU Autotools during the build

[msekletar]

biosdevname now uses Github releases which is awesome. However, tarball with the latest release (biosdevname-0.7.3.tar.gz) no longer contains generated configure script as it is (presumably) just git-archive export of the git tree.

This is fine but I still think that there is value in providing the tarball that doesn't require end users to install Autotools in order to build the package. After all, this is one of the few reasons why to continue using Autotools in 2018.

[superm1]

Do you have some advice with best practices for how other projects do this? It's not ideal to commit ./configure into the tree since it's auto-generated.

I suppose an alternative is to adjust make-release.sh to re-generate configure at that time right before tagging.

[msekletar]

I think the best practice is to have generated configure in the tarball (and that will be attached manually to given release -- Autotools have a standard target to generate it make dist IIRC). Also signing corresponding release tag is considered best practice.

I mean there are projects which just sign tags and let Github generate tarballs (e.g. systemd). But systemd uses meson as a build system. End users are expected to run it to generate build configuration. On the other hand, Autotools has an explicit goal to not force end users to install build system in order to build the project.

I personally don't care too much. I filed an issue just to make maintainers aware that there was a change in the end user workflow as a result of migration to Github. IOW, feel free to close the issue if you don't want to deal with any of the above.