dist_... files not deleted by distclean

[Jirka Hanika]

Hi, 

I'm not sure if the following is really a bug in automake,
but after a lot of experimenting and archive browsing I incline to think
so.  I'd be happy to be taught better if I'm wrong.

Suppose my package requires a bunch of architecture independent
data files (say, icons).  It seems natural for these files to
get installed into pkgdatadir and to go to the distribution,
so I write something like

dist_pkgdata_DATA = $(srcdir)/*.png

in the corresponding Makefile.am; this however causes "make distcheck"
to fail ("files left after distclean"), because the files are copied to
the distribution, but not deleted with distclean.  [The $(srcdir) is also
necessary, otherwise "make distcheck" fails to find the files
during the VPATH build.]

So I can't distribute the icons and still pass a distcheck.

I cannot work this around by DISTCLEANFILES, as the files are not
generated.

I finally hacked the situation by


distcleancheck:
        @@:

in the corresponding Makefile.am, but this
1) disables a potentially useful check
2) sounds not highly intuitive nor documented anywhere
3) doesn't work for automake 1.5 (it does for 1.6.2)
4) should not be necessary:

Why distclean doesn't simply delete the dist_whatever files?

Jirka