Using version-info data with multi-branch packaging workflow

[Ben Finney]

Ben Finney <bignose+hates-spam at benfinney.id.au> writes:

> John Arbash Meinel <john at arbash-meinel.com> writes:
> > You *could* have 'make' always build the file, but then it always
> > has to re-link the final output (because a build product changed).
> > I guess you could [overwrite the version module only if it's
> > different from the existing one]
> 
> Thanks, for now I'll just regenerate it each time.

This can't work (as I've just discovered), because the make then
depends on *always* being inside the Bazaar branch, which is not true
when building from the source tarball. So it seems I'll need to employ
something that won't generate the 'version_info.py' module from the
build process at all.

Do others use a make rule to generate this file, as suggested in the
Bazaar manual describing this feature? How do you ensure that it
happens at the right times, and doesn't fail the build when not run
inside the Bazaar branch?

-- 
 \       “When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold to the masses |
  `\    over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and |
_o__)                    its speaker a raving lunatic.” —Dresden James |
Ben Finney