Re: Makeinfo required to build Automake 1.18

On Sat, May 31, 2025 at 10:19=E2=80=AFPM Karl Berry <[email protected]> =
wrote:
> Or, wait, let's back up. Why is bootstrap in the tarball in the first
> place? Does every package distribute it? No, I see it's not in the GNU
> make or autoconf tarballs. So I guess automake should not include it
> either? I can't find any record of an explicit decision about it in the
> ChangeLog or elsewhere, though Stefano mentioned that it is so:

We discussed in the Texinfo project a few years ago and decided not to
start distributing the bootstrap script, after someone asked us to
start doing so.

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2022-05/msg00000.html

I wrote at the time (in a private email):

> Yes, I am still opposed.  I believe it is wrong to include it in the
> distribution as it can delete or overwrite files from the distribution,
> with no way to get them back, unlike Makefile rules (e.g. "make distclean=
").