git-version-gen headaches

[Mike Frysinger]

the current git-version-gen script and its usage in packages such as coreutils 
is causing me headaches wrt distros.  it currently assumes one of two states:
        - the current tree is a valid git repo belonging to the related project
        - the current tree is not a git repo (all the way back to the root)

the reports i'm getting are that some people like to maintain some of the 
higher directories in git (perhaps even /), and so when you unpack a coreutils 
release and attempt to compile/install it, this script is triggered since git 
will walk back from $PWD to / to find a .git dir.

this results either in incorrect warnings (during install), or incorrect 
forcing of autotools to be regenerated (during maintainer/dist targets).

further, some of the commands used in git-version-gen require write access to 
the .git repo (i.e. git update-index --refresh), which our package management 
tools flag as a violation (after all, building/installing packages in $PWD 
generally should not be updating files outside of $PWD).
-mike

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