|  |  13.3 The distcheck rule 
The make distdocumentation sounds nice, andmake distdid
do something, but how do you know it really works?  It is a terrible
feeling when you realize your carefully crafted distribution is missing
a file and won't compile on a user's machine. 
I wouldn't write such an introduction unless Automake provided a
solution.  The solution is a smoke test known as make distcheck.
This rule performs amake distas usual, but it doesn't stop
there.  Instead, it then proceeds to untar the new archive into a fresh
directory, build it in a fresh build directory separate from the source
directory, install it into a third fresh directory, and finally runmake checkin the build tree.  If any step fails,distcheckaborts, leaving you to fix the problem before it will
create a distribution. 
While not a complete test -- it only tries one architecture, after all
-- distchecknevertheless catches most packaging errors (as
opposed to portability bugs), and its use is highly recommended. 
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