4.4. Packaging Generated Files
What to do with generated files is keenly contested on the relevant Internet mailing lists. There are two points of view, and this section presents both of them so that you can try to determine the best policy for your project.
One argument is that generated files should not be included with a package, but rather only the "preferred form" of the source code should be included. By this definition, 'configure' is a derived file, just like an object file, and it should not be included in the package. Therefore, the user should use the GNU Autotools to bootstrap themselves prior to building the package. I believe there is some merit to this purist approach, because it discourages the practice of packaging derived files. ...
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