title: Should I include configure and makefile in a github repository?
body: <p>We recently moved from subversion to git, and then to Github, for several open source projects.  Github was nice in that it provided a lot of functionality. One of the things I particularly like is the ability to download tags as <code>zip</code> or <code>.tar.gz</code> files.</p>
  
  <p>Unfortunately Github recently discontinued downloads. That shouldn't be a problem because of the ability to download tags. However in the past we have not put a <code>Makefile</code> , <code>configure</code> script or any other autoconf-generated files into the repo because they get lots of conflicts when people merge. </p>
  
  <p>What's the proper way to handle this?</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Should I put autoconf and automake-generated files in the repo so people can download tags directly?</li>
  <li>Or should there be a <code>bootstrap.sh</code> file and people are told to run that?</li>
  <li>Or should I just do a <code>make dist</code> and put that into the repo?</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>