[netcdfgroup] source code distribution is riddled with invisible files

• To: netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: [netcdfgroup] source code distribution is riddled with invisible files
• From: huebbe <nathanael.huebbe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 12:46:44 +0100

Dear Netcdf developers,
I just wanted to bring to your attention that the current source code
distribution "netcdf-4.3.0.tar.gz" is riddled with a multitude of files
starting with "._". There is one such invisible file for each and every
visible file or directory. Introspection of these files revealed some
MacOS-X system as the culprit, on which the ".tar.gz" was presumably
generated. Especially nasty is the fact, that there is even one such
file outside the top level directory "._netcdf-4.3.0", which will not be
automatically destroyed when the unpacked directory is removed.

Please be sure not to include such files in future source distributions.

One easy way to be safe from such unwanted files within a tarball is to
use `git archive` to generate the distribution tarballs. This will
ignore any files not under version control. Maybe other version control
systems have similar features, but I don't know about them.

Cheers,
Nathanael Hübbe

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