acinstall: remove, it has never been really used

Accordingly to the git history (see for example the 'README-alpha'
in commit 'Release-1-1e-39-g9beb4ec' of 06-10-1996), the 'acinstall'
script should have been used to install m4 files for aclocal.  The
comments in this script report that "... A script is needed to do
this because we want to do serial-number checking; newer versions
of macro files should always be preferred".

But the 'acinstall' script has never been really used: for example,
the entry "actually use acinstall program" was removed (unfixed)
from the TODO file in commit 'Release-1-1k-12-g1201405' of
08-12-1996, and the only citation of 'acinstall' in the manual was
removed in commit 'Release-1-1l-37-g128c3d7' of 19-03-1997, and
never added back. In addition, the last non-trivial edit to the
script (that is, besides updates to the copyright notice) dates
back to 1996.

More importantly, now that aclocal supports the ACLOCAL_PATH
environment variable, installing m4 files directly in the
system-wide acdir is discouraged, and better left only to
distros' package managers (which already have their own way to
do so, with which third-party build systems should not directly
meddle).

So we just remove the 'acinstall' script.

* lib/acinstall: Remove.
* lib/Makefile.am (dist_script_DATA): Update.

Signed-off-by: Stefano Lattarini <stefano.lattarini@gmail.com>

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 2f52ff7..48d1c52 100644 (file)
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -50,6 +50,9 @@ New in 1.11a:
 
 * Obsolete features removed:
 
+  - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
+    removed.
+
   - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
 
   - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed

diff --git a/lib/Makefile.am b/lib/Makefile.am
index fb80351..f56db26 100644 (file)
--- a/lib/Makefile.am
+++ b/lib/Makefile.am
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ dist_script_DATA = \
   mkinstalldirs \
   elisp-comp \
   ylwrap \
-  acinstall \
   depcomp \
   compile \
   py-compile \

diff --git a/lib/acinstall b/lib/acinstall
deleted file mode 100755 (executable)
index 20bdc3a..0000000
--- a/lib/acinstall
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,50 +0,0 @@
-#! /bin/sh
-
-# Install an aclocal-style M4 file.  A script is needed to do this
-# because we want to do serial-number checking; newer versions of
-# macro files should always be preferred.
-
-# Usage:
-#  acinstall file directory installprogram [install-args]...
-
-# Copyright 1996-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
-
-# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
-# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
-# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
-# any later version.
-
-# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
-# GNU General Public License for more details.
-
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-
-file="$1"
-dir="$2"
-shift
-shift
-
-localserial=`grep '^# serial ' $file | sed -e 's/^# serial \([0-9][0-9]*\).*$/\1/; q'`
-if test -z "$localserial"; then
-   echo "acinstall: no serial number in $file" 1>&2
-   exit 1
-fi
-
-# Maybe if the installed file has no serial number we should just
-# assume it is ancient.
-instserial=`grep '^# serial ' $dir/$file | sed -e 's/^# serial \([0-9][0-9]*\).*$/\1/; q'`
-if test -z "$instserial"; then
-   echo "acinstall: no serial number in $dir/$file" 1>&2
-   exit 1
-fi
-
-if test $localserial -lt $instserial; then
-   # Installed file is newer.
-   exit 0
-fi
-
-# Install the file.
-$* $file $dir/$file