Everyone wants a README, so might as well add AUTHORS, COPYING, and INSTALL. Renamed CHANGES to NEWS, added ChangeLog, and voila - we conform to the (OK, somewhat crusty) GNU coding standards. No longer specify 'foreign' as an automake option.

http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html

Author: benkirk

AUTHORS

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+Authors, with various user IDs used over the years:
+
+Benjamin S. Kirk = benkirk
+Bill Barth       = bbarth
+Cody Permann     = permcody
+Daniel Dreyer    = ddreyer
+David Andrs      = andrsd
+David Knezevic   = knezed01
+Derek Gaston     = friedmud
+Dmitry Karpeev   = karpeev
+Florian Prill    = fprill
+Jason Hales      = jasondhales
+John W. Peterson = jwpeterson
+Paul T. Bauman   = pbauman
+Roy H. Stogner   = roystgnr
+Steffen Petersen = spetersen
+Sylvain Vallaghe = svallagh
+Tim Kroeger      = sheep_tk
+Truman Ellis     = trumanellis
+Wout Ruijter     = woutruijter

license COPYINGlicense renamed to COPYING

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+To see recent changes, run
+
+$ git log
+
+	

ChangeLog

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 SUBDIRS = include #src
 
-AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign subdir-objects 
+AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = subdir-objects 
 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS  = -I m4
 AM_CFLAGS        = $(libmesh_CFLAGS)
 
@@ -23,8 +23,7 @@ if LIBMESH_ENABLE_TECPLOT
 endif
 
 # additional files which must be included in 'make dist'
-EXTRA_DIST = license \
-             reference_elements \
+EXTRA_DIST = reference_elements \
              include/include_HEADERS \
 	     include/rebuild_include_HEADERS.sh \
 	     src/libmesh_SOURCES \

INSTALL

@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ build_triplet = @build@
 host_triplet = @host@
 target_triplet = @target@
 @LIBMESH_ENABLE_TECPLOT_TRUE@am__append_1 = @TECPLOT_LIBRARY@
-DIST_COMMON = $(am__configure_deps) $(srcdir)/Makefile.am \
+DIST_COMMON = README $(am__configure_deps) $(srcdir)/Makefile.am \
 	$(srcdir)/Makefile.in $(srcdir)/src/libmesh_SOURCES \
 	$(top_srcdir)/build-aux/config.guess \
 	$(top_srcdir)/build-aux/config.sub \
@@ -76,10 +76,10 @@ DIST_COMMON = $(am__configure_deps) $(srcdir)/Makefile.am \
 	$(top_srcdir)/contrib/utils/libmesh-oprof.pc.in \
 	$(top_srcdir)/contrib/utils/libmesh-opt.pc.in \
 	$(top_srcdir)/contrib/utils/libmesh-prof.pc.in \
-	$(top_srcdir)/doc/Doxyfile.in $(top_srcdir)/doc/dot.in \
-	build-aux/config.guess build-aux/config.sub build-aux/depcomp \
-	build-aux/install-sh build-aux/ltmain.sh build-aux/missing \
-	build-aux/ylwrap
+	$(top_srcdir)/doc/Doxyfile.in $(top_srcdir)/doc/dot.in AUTHORS \
+	COPYING ChangeLog INSTALL NEWS build-aux/config.guess \
+	build-aux/config.sub build-aux/depcomp build-aux/install-sh \
+	build-aux/ltmain.sh build-aux/missing build-aux/ylwrap
 @LIBMESH_OPT_MODE_TRUE@am__append_2 = libmesh_opt.la
 @LIBMESH_DBG_MODE_TRUE@am__append_3 = libmesh_dbg.la
 @LIBMESH_DEVEL_MODE_TRUE@am__append_4 = libmesh_devel.la
@@ -4035,7 +4035,7 @@ top_srcdir = @top_srcdir@
 # 	   test/comp_ns/Makefile.in		    \
 # 	   test/unit/Makefile.in                    
 SUBDIRS = include contrib $(am__append_7) $(am__append_11)
-AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign subdir-objects 
+AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = subdir-objects 
 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
 AM_CFLAGS = $(libmesh_CFLAGS)
 
@@ -4050,7 +4050,7 @@ AM_CPPFLAGS = -DLIBMESH_IS_COMPILING_ITSELF \
 
 
 # additional files which must be included in 'make dist'
-EXTRA_DIST = license reference_elements include/include_HEADERS \
+EXTRA_DIST = reference_elements include/include_HEADERS \
 	include/rebuild_include_HEADERS.sh src/libmesh_SOURCES \
 	src/rebuild_libmesh_SOURCES.sh contrib/tecplot/include \
 	contrib/tecplot/lib contrib/tecplot/README \
@@ -4682,15 +4682,15 @@ $(srcdir)/Makefile.in: @MAINTAINER_MODE_TRUE@ $(srcdir)/Makefile.am $(srcdir)/sr
 	@for dep in $?; do \
 	  case '$(am__configure_deps)' in \
 	    *$$dep*) \
-	      echo ' cd $(srcdir) && $(AUTOMAKE) --foreign'; \
-	      $(am__cd) $(srcdir) && $(AUTOMAKE) --foreign \
+	      echo ' cd $(srcdir) && $(AUTOMAKE) --gnu'; \
+	      $(am__cd) $(srcdir) && $(AUTOMAKE) --gnu \
 		&& exit 0; \
 	      exit 1;; \
 	  esac; \
 	done; \
-	echo ' cd $(top_srcdir) && $(AUTOMAKE) --foreign Makefile'; \
+	echo ' cd $(top_srcdir) && $(AUTOMAKE) --gnu Makefile'; \
 	$(am__cd) $(top_srcdir) && \
-	  $(AUTOMAKE) --foreign Makefile
+	  $(AUTOMAKE) --gnu Makefile
 .PRECIOUS: Makefile
 Makefile: $(srcdir)/Makefile.in $(top_builddir)/config.status
 	@case '$?' in \

Makefile.am

@@ -5851,10 +5851,9 @@ func_mode_link ()
       # -tp=*                Portland pgcc target processor selection
       # --sysroot=*          for sysroot support
       # -O*, -flto*, -fwhopr*, -fuse-linker-plugin GCC link-time optimization
-      # -stdlib=*            select c++ std lib with clang
       -64|-mips[0-9]|-r[0-9][0-9]*|-xarch=*|-xtarget=*|+DA*|+DD*|-q*|-m*| \
       -t[45]*|-txscale*|-p|-pg|--coverage|-fprofile-*|-F*|@*|-tp=*|--sysroot=*| \
-      -O*|-flto*|-fwhopr*|-fuse-linker-plugin|-stdlib=*)
+      -O*|-flto*|-fwhopr*|-fuse-linker-plugin)
         func_quote_for_eval "$arg"
 	arg="$func_quote_for_eval_result"
         func_append compile_command " $arg"

Makefile.in

@@ -1093,7 +1093,7 @@ run: $(check_PROGRAMS)
 	LIBMESH_DIR=$(abs_top_srcdir) METHODS="$(METHODS)" $(srcdir)/$(check_SCRIPTS)
 doc: $(example_name).php
 html: $(example_name).php
-$(example_name).php: $(example_name) \
+$(example_name).php: example-opt example-dbg example-devel \
                         $(top_srcdir)/contrib/bin/ex2html.sh \
                        Makefile
 	$(MAKE) -s run > stdout.log