bin/mdw-build: Describing the build system conventions needed.

diff --git a/bin/mdw-build b/bin/mdw-build
index 5ea9e12..bcd2ac6 100755 (executable)
--- a/bin/mdw-build
+++ b/bin/mdw-build
@@ -21,6 +21,36 @@
 ### along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
 ### Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
 
+###--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+### Conventions for build systems.
+###
+### This script is designed to work with a variety of `make'-based build
+### systems, but there are a number of conventions which must be followed if
+### this is going to work properly.
+###
+###   * There must be a `configure.ac', `configure.in', or `.links' file, or
+###    a `.git' directory in the project top-level, so that we can find it.
+###
+###   * The following `make' variables must be assigned in the top-level
+###    Makefile, after `mdw-build' has constructed it.
+###
+###    distdir         The name of the top-level project directory in the
+###                    source distribution, and the base name for
+###                    distribution archives; should be of the form
+###                    `PROJECT-VERSION'.
+###
+###    The following `make' targets must be available in the top-level
+###    Makefile.
+###
+###    dist            Write to $(distdir).tar.gz a source distribution of
+###                    the package.
+###
+###    distcheck       As for `dist', but also build and test the project.
+###
+###  * The source distribution constructed by `make dist' must contain a file
+###    $(distdir)/RELEASE containing the release name.  This isn't currently
+###    tested, but it might be later.
+
 set -e
 
 ###--------------------------------------------------------------------------