# HG changeset patch
# User Peter Simons <simons@cryp.to>
# Date 1275917061 -7200
# Node ID 50e9a2259a7dbd442a252d5b98fce382851aebd4
# Parent  e1ecf2c0126697704f64b08f1cc0ff81522d5bfb
maint.mk: make the news-check rule more configurable

* top/maint.mk (news-check-lines-spec) New variable.
(news-check): Use "sed -n 1,10p" in place of "head".

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2010-06-08  Peter Simons  <simons@cryp.to>
+
+	maint.mk: make the news-check rule more configurable
+	* top/maint.mk (news-check-lines-spec) New variable.
+	(news-check): Use "sed -n 1,10p" in place of "head".
+
 2010-06-07  Jim Meyering  <meyering@redhat.com>
 
 	do-release-commit-and-tag: fix typo in --help
diff --git a/top/maint.mk b/top/maint.mk
--- a/top/maint.mk
+++ b/top/maint.mk
@@ -103,6 +103,12 @@
 # Override this in cfg.mk if you are using a different format in your
 # NEWS file.
 today = $(shell date +%Y-%m-%d)
+
+# Select which lines of NEWS are searched for $(news-check-regexp).
+# This is a sed line number spec.  The default says that we search
+# lines 1..10 of NEWS for $(news-check-regexp).
+# If you want to search only line 3 or only lines 20-22, use "3" or "20,22".
+news-check-lines-spec ?= 1,10
 news-check-regexp ?= '^\*.* $(VERSION_REGEXP) \($(today)\)'
 
 # Prevent programs like 'sort' from considering distinct strings to be equal.
@@ -874,8 +880,8 @@
 	  && { echo '$(ME): use $$(...), not @...@' 1>&2; exit 1; } || :
 
 news-check: NEWS
-	if head $(srcdir)/NEWS | grep -E $(news-check-regexp)		\
-	    >/dev/null; then						\
+	if sed -n $(news-check-lines-spec)p $(srcdir)/NEWS		\
+	    | grep -E $(news-check-regexp) >/dev/null; then		\
 	  :;								\
 	else								\
 	  echo 'NEWS: $$(news-check-regexp) failed to match' 1>&2;	\