(automake-1.16.info)The dist Hook

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14.3 The dist Hook
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Occasionally it is useful to be able to change the distribution before
it is packaged up.  If the ‘dist-hook’ rule exists, it is run after the
distribution directory is filled, but before the actual distribution
archives are created.  One way to use this is for removing unnecessary
files that get recursively included by specifying a directory in
‘EXTRA_DIST’:

     EXTRA_DIST = doc
     dist-hook:
             rm -rf `find $(distdir)/doc -type d -name .svn`

Note that the ‘dist-hook’ recipe shouldn’t assume that the regular files
in the distribution directory are writable; this might not be the case
if one is packaging from a read-only source tree, or when a ‘make
distcheck’ is being done.  For similar reasons, the recipe shouldn’t
assume that the subdirectories put into the distribution directory as
effect of having them listed in ‘EXTRA_DIST’ are writable.  So, if the
‘dist-hook’ recipe wants to modify the content of an existing file (or
‘EXTRA_DIST’ subdirectory) in the distribution directory, it should
explicitly to make it writable first:

     EXTRA_DIST = README doc
     dist-hook:
             chmod u+w $(distdir)/README $(distdir)/doc
             echo "Distribution date: `date`" >> README
             rm -f $(distdir)/doc/HACKING

   Two variables that come handy when writing ‘dist-hook’ rules are
‘$(distdir)’ and ‘$(top_distdir)’.

   ‘$(distdir)’ points to the directory where the ‘dist’ rule will copy
files from the current directory before creating the tarball.  If you
are at the top-level directory, then ‘distdir = $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)’.
When used from subdirectory named ‘foo/’, then ‘distdir =
../$(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)/foo’.  ‘$(distdir)’ can be a relative or
absolute path, do not assume any form.

   ‘$(top_distdir)’ always points to the root directory of the
distributed tree.  At the top-level it’s equal to ‘$(distdir)’.  In the
‘foo/’ subdirectory ‘top_distdir = ../$(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)’.
‘$(top_distdir)’ too can be a relative or absolute path.

   Note that when packages are nested using ‘AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS’ (Note:
Subpackages), then ‘$(distdir)’ and ‘$(top_distdir)’ are relative to
the package where ‘make dist’ was run, not to any sub-packages involved.