automake-1.16: The Types of Distributions
14.5 The Types of Distributions
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Automake generates rules to provide archives of the project for
distributions in various formats. Their targets are:
‘dist-gzip’
Generate a ‘gzip’ tar archive of the distribution. This is the
only format enabled by default. By default, this rule makes ‘gzip’
use a compression option of ‘--best’. To make it use a different
one, set the ‘GZIP_ENV’ environment variable. For example, ‘make
dist-gzip GZIP_ENV=-7’.
‘dist-bzip2’
Generate a ‘bzip2’ tar archive of the distribution. bzip2 archives
are usually smaller than gzipped archives. By default, this rule
makes ‘bzip2’ use a compression option of ‘-9’. To make it use a
different one, set the ‘BZIP2’ environment variable.
‘dist-lzip’
Generate an ‘lzip’ tar archive of the distribution. ‘lzip’
archives are usually smaller than ‘bzip2’-compressed archives. By
default, this rule makes ‘lzip’ use a compression option of ‘-9’.
To make it use a different one, set the ‘LZIP_OPT’ environment
variable.
‘dist-xz’
Generate an ‘xz’ tar archive of the distribution. ‘xz’ archives
are usually smaller than ‘bzip2’-compressed archives. By default,
this rule makes ‘xz’ use a compression option of ‘-e’. To make it
use a different one, set the ‘XZ_OPT’ environment variable. For
example, run this command to use the default compression ratio, but
with a progress indicator: ‘make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-ve’.
‘dist-zip’
Generate a ‘zip’ archive of the distribution.
‘dist-zstd’
Generate a ‘zstd’ tar archive of the distribution. By default,
this rule makes ‘zstd’ use a compression option of ‘-19’. To use a
different setting, set the ‘ZSTD_OPT’ environment variable. For
example, run this command to use the default compression ratio, but
with a progress indicator: ‘make dist-zstd ZSTD_OPT=-19v’.
However, note that for compatibility with ‘zstd’ itself, you may
instead set the ‘ZSTD_CLEVEL’ environment variable, in which case,
any ‘ZSTD_OPT’ setting is ignored.
‘dist-shar’
Generate a ‘shar’ archive of the distribution. This format archive
is obsolescent, and use of this option is deprecated. It and the
corresponding functionality will be removed altogether in Automake
2.0.
‘dist-tarZ’
Generate a tar archive of the distribution, compressed with the
historical (and obsolescent) program ‘compress’. This option is
deprecated, and it and the corresponding functionality will be
removed altogether in Automake 2.0.
The rule ‘dist’ (and its historical synonym ‘dist-all’) will create
archives in all the enabled formats (⇒List of Automake options
for how to change this list). By default, only the ‘dist-gzip’ target
is enabled by ‘dist’.