Huh? Generated files are written to the build directory which is only the source directory if you choose to make it so... $ cd /tmp/build $ ../bas

Huh? Generated files are written to the build directory which is only the source directory if you choose to make it so... $ cd /tmp/build $ ../bash-5.2.15/configure checking build system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu checking host system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Beginning configuration for bash-5.2-release for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu checking for gcc... gcc ... etc ... $ tree . ├── builtins │ └── Makefile ├── config.h ├── config.log ├── config.status ├── doc │ └── Makefile ├── examples │ └── loadables │ ├── Makefile │ ├── Makefile.inc │ ├── Makefile.sample │ └── perl │ └── Makefile ├── lib │ ├── glob │ │ └── Makefile │ ├── intl │ │ └── Makefile │ ├── malloc │ │ └── Makefile │ ├── readline │ │ └── Makefile │ ├── sh │ │ └── Makefile │ ├── termcap │ │ └── Makefile │ └── tilde │ └── Makefile ├── Makefile ├── po │ ├── Makefile │ ├── Makefile.in │ └── POTFILES ├── stamp-h ├── support │ ├── bashbug.sh │ ├── bash.pc │ └── Makefile └── tests 17 directories, 24 files The makefiles and any files they generate are in /tmp/build, the source directory remains unmodified. (Recursive make, eww!) ;)