Slightly improve error message when check_dist_archive fails.

Also add some words about "make distcheck" in README.coding.

diff --git a/README.coding b/README.coding
index 4183390..35c9a55 100644 (file)
--- a/README.coding
+++ b/README.coding
@@ -187,6 +187,10 @@ investigating the portability of the thing to windows.
 * Your commit message should follow the git habits, explained eg here:
   http://tbaggery.com/2008/04/19/a-note-about-git-commit-messages.html
 
+* When you add/remove files, and/or make changes in the lists of files to build,
+  please check that "make distcheck" still succeeds.  This is needed to ensure
+  that the generated archive is consistent.
+
 * If you want to debug memory allocation problems, here are a few hints:
   - disable compiler optimizations, to have better backtraces;
   - disable the mallocators, or it will be hard to match malloc's with

diff --git a/tools/check_dist_archive b/tools/check_dist_archive
index 7937222..53b1d1f 100755 (executable)
--- a/tools/check_dist_archive
+++ b/tools/check_dist_archive
@@ -86,7 +86,13 @@ diffcmd() {
         echo "The archive looks good."
     else
         status=1
-        echo "Some files are missing and/or unexpected in the archive."
+        cat <<EOF
+ERROR: Some files are missing and/or unexpected in the archive.
+* lines beginning with '-' give files that are unexpected in the archive
+* lines beginning with '+' give files that are missing from the archive
+Please fix CMake files (e.g. "buildtools/Cmake/DefinePackages.cmake"),
+and/or "tools/check_dist_archive.exclude".
+EOF
         diff -u "$fa" "$fb"
     fi
 }