Re: [PATCH] Documentation/Makefile: don't re-build on 'git version' changes

Junio C Hamano wrote:

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason [off-list ref] writes:

I am OK with the approach you hinted to have an option to _hide_ the
version string in the generated documentation (hence they lose their
dependency on GIT-VERSION-FILE), while keeping the dependency of
version.o on GIT-VERSION-FILE, so that something goes wrong in a
built binary, the developer can still ask "git version" to identify
where the binary came from.

But it would be even better if the build system knew what was the intent
of the build.

There's a difference when building a revision just to run `make test` on
it, and building it to do `make install`. In the former there's no need
for a real version in version.o, only in the latter.

Maybe RELASE=1. Not a release from the point of view of a maintainer,
but a release in the sense that the binaries will escape our in-tree
build.

-- 
Felipe Contreras