Structure of package /man

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

>>>>> "David" == David Kastrup <dak at gnu.org> writes:

    David> Well, the source is the preferred form for modification,
    David> and a binary package would not qualify for that all-in-all,
    David> anyway.

There is nothing in the GPL that says any particular packaging format
or organization is required, or required to be supported, either as
source or as installed.

The source for an info file is a Texinfo file.  The source for a
compiled Lisp file is a Lisp file.  There is no linking or particular
magic involved in making them work; you just run the relevant compiler
and overwrite the relevant processed file(s) in the installed package.
XEmacs "binary" packages supply both the Lisp files and the Texinfo
files corresponding to any processed files they contain.  That is all
that the GPL requires.

Note that I'm not saying that the GPL never requires distribution of
Makefiles and other build infrastructure.  Just that in the case of
the Emacs Lisp packages that I'm aware of, it does not (except
possibly for VM and mule-ucs, which construct .elc files in
unconventional ways).  AUCTeX may be different but nothing I've seen
so far convinces me that it is.

-- 
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