Autotools

Creating a Source Distribution Archive

In order to actually get source code for Jupiter to our users, we're going to have to create and distribute a source archive—a tarball. We could write a separate script to create the tarball, but since we can use phony targets to create arbitrary sets of functionality in makefiles, let's design a make target to perform this task instead. Building a source archive for distribution is usually relegated to the dist target.

When designing a new make target, we need to consider whether its functionality should be distributed among the makefiles of the project or handled in a single location. Normally, the rule of thumb is to take advantage of a recursive build system's nature by allowing each directory to manage ...