Subject: bug#79419: "automake --add-missing" should not install an obsolete texinfo.tex file

From: "Zack Weinberg" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2025 17:56:22 -0400

On Wed, Sep 10, 2025, at 5:11 PM, Karl Berry wrote:
> Hi Vincent.  As far as I know, --add-missing has never checked for
> whether its versions are older. I don't know of a reasonable way to
> change this -- it's a common problem, and also inevitable, given
> asynchronous releases of everything involved. Instead, it doesn't
> install over existing files.
...
> I don't think it's feasible for automake to go poking around the
> system trying to find other versions of the "missing" files to compare
> against. There'd be no way to know what's really wanted, seems to me.
...
> I'm open to other ideas. --best, karl.

This couldn't be the default, because it'd involve talking to the
network, but what about a mode where it retrieves the latest version of
each file that is frequently updated, directly from its official VCS
source?  As well as texinfo.tex, I know this would be useful for
config.sub and config.guess at least.

zw