Automake ignore missing NEWS/AUTHORS/COPYING/etc. standard files

automake, autotools

Solution

Use the `foreign` option. Look up "strictness" in the documentation.

Problem

Automake requires that the following "standard" files exist in the source directory of my project: - INSTALL - NEWS - README - COPYING - AUTHORS - ChangeLog Obviously, none of these files are necessary for a program to build, but Automake refuses to run without them. I know about the `--add-missing` flag that will cause boilerplate files to be generated, but I would rather not have the files at all. Is there a way to force Automake to run and ignore the missing files without generating them?

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