Other problems I encounter with Github‐generated tarballs: most projects that use Autoconf don’t keep the generated configure script in the repository, so the G

Other problems I encounter with Github‐generated tarballs: most projects that use Autoconf don’t keep the generated configure script in the repository, so the Github tarball has a build dependency on autoconf (as opposed to tarballs generated with “make dist”). Also, many people don’t realize that Github tarballs don’t contain submodules. This is a big hassle when upstreams don’t adequately test their releases. Providing a working tarball is becoming less and less common due to Github’s (and other sites’) UI. Taking the steps in the article is very helpful to packagers all over, but the above factors can be a problem for upstreams who aren’t aware of the problems.