clarification about the %doc directive

[rpjday <rpjday mindspring com>]

  ok, given the number of people who emailed me to correct my
thinking, i think i've just about got this licked, but there's
still a question i have regarding the %doc directive in the
%files section of the spec file.

  if i have a line of the form:

    %doc README ChangeLog

this line actually performs double duty as far as i can tell.

  first, it identifies to the *install* step what files in the 
root of the corresponding build directory should be copied to the
appropriate documentation directory in that RPM's "build root".
in this case, in my build root directory, i will suddenly have
a new directory substructure of the form

  usr/share/doc/catpics-1.0/{README,ChangeLog}

and i verified this by checking the output from "rpm -bi".
so far, so good.

  second, that very same %doc line also states that those
documentation files should be included in the RPM being built,
and i again verified that by checking after running "rpm -bb".
that's what i mean by that line performing "double duty" --
it's actually a directive to both the install and RPM build
steps, is that right?

  finally, although this all seems to work nicely, the
"--excludedocs" option on RPM install still doesn't seem to
work.  i'll test that further.  drat.

rday