diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index e3221a11a2..1194024576 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -69,7 +69,6 @@ option (DISABLE_DEPRECATED_GNOME "don't use deprecated gnome functions" OFF)
 set(COMPILE_GSCHEMAS ON CACHE BOOL "Compile the GSettings schema")
 
 set(GNUCASH_BUILD_ID "" CACHE STRING "Overrides the GnuCash build identification (Build ID) which defaults to a description of the vcs commit from which gnucash is built. Distributions may want to insert a package management based version number instead")
-# GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS - Controls whether to generate the swig wrappers for guile and python. If not set the wrappers will only be generated when building from a git worktree, commented out here, but will be evaluated later on in this file
 
 # Check that all of the absolute install paths are inside
 # ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}. If they're not, disable binreloc as it
@@ -159,10 +158,6 @@ endif()
 # location once here.
 set(VCS_INFO_FILE ${VCS_INFO_BASE_DIR}/libgnucash/core-utils/gnc-vcs-info.h)
 
-# Determine whether to generate the swig wrappers.
-# By default they will only be generated when building from a git worktree
-set(GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS ${BUILDING_FROM_VCS} CACHE BOOL "Controls whether to generate the swig wrappers for guile and python. If not set the wrappers will only be generated when building from a git worktree")
-
 if (WIN32)
   # Help Windows find the various dependencies. We assume here that the standard advice for building
   # GnuCash has been followed and that these dependencies live underneath something like C:/GCDEV, which
@@ -265,11 +260,9 @@ endif (WIN32)
 # ############################################################
 
 # SWIG
-if(GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS)
-  find_package (SWIG 2.0.10 REQUIRED)
-  include (${SWIG_USE_FILE})
-  string(REGEX MATCH "^[0-9]+[.]" SWIG_MAJOR ${SWIG_VERSION})
-endif()
+find_package (SWIG 2.0.10 REQUIRED)
+include (${SWIG_USE_FILE})
+string(REGEX MATCH "^[0-9]+[.]" SWIG_MAJOR ${SWIG_VERSION})
 
 # Find Guile and determine which version we are using.
 # Look for guile versions in this order: 2.2 > 2.0
diff --git a/common/CMakeLists.txt b/common/CMakeLists.txt
index 087ec67e9f..b06b7d8627 100644
--- a/common/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/common/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -13,19 +13,13 @@ set(common_EXTRA_DIST
         platform.h)
 
 
-if (GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS)
-    set (SWIG_RUNTIME_H ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/swig-runtime.h)
-    # Command to generate the swig-runtime.h header
-    add_custom_command (
-        OUTPUT ${SWIG_RUNTIME_H}
-        DEPENDS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeLists.txt
-        COMMAND ${SWIG_EXECUTABLE} -guile -external-runtime ${SWIG_RUNTIME_H}
-    )
-else()
-    set (SWIG_RUNTIME_H ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/swig-runtime.h)
-endif()
-dist_add_generated (${GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS} swig-runtime.h)
-
+set (SWIG_RUNTIME_H ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/swig-runtime.h)
+# Command to generate the swig-runtime.h header
+add_custom_command (
+    OUTPUT ${SWIG_RUNTIME_H}
+    DEPENDS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeLists.txt
+    COMMAND ${SWIG_EXECUTABLE} -guile -external-runtime ${SWIG_RUNTIME_H}
+)
 add_custom_target (swig-runtime-h DEPENDS ${SWIG_RUNTIME_H})
 
 set_local_dist(common_DIST_local CMakeLists.txt ${common_EXTRA_DIST})
diff --git a/common/cmake_modules/GncAddSwigCommand.cmake b/common/cmake_modules/GncAddSwigCommand.cmake
index fa4f09d3c0..4b96b415b4 100644
--- a/common/cmake_modules/GncAddSwigCommand.cmake
+++ b/common/cmake_modules/GncAddSwigCommand.cmake
@@ -5,98 +5,67 @@
 # For details see the accompanying COPYING-CMAKE-SCRIPTS file.
 
 # gnc_add_swig_guile_command is used to generate guile swig wrappers
-# it will only really generate the wrappers when building from git
-# when building from tarball it will set up everything so the version of the wrapper
-# from the tarball will be used instead
 # - _target is the name of a global target that will be set for this wrapper file,
 #    this can be used elsewhere to create a depencency on this wrapper
 # - _out_var will be set to the full path to the generated wrapper file
-#   when building from git, it points to the actually generated file
-#   however when building from a tarball, it will point to the version from the tarball instead
-# - _output is the name of the wrapper file to generate (or to look up in the tarball)
+# - _output is the name of the wrapper file to generate
 # - _input is the swig interface file (*.i) to generate this wrapper from
 # Any additional parameters will be used as dependencies for this wrapper target
 macro (gnc_add_swig_guile_command _target _out_var _output _input)
 
-    if (GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS)
-        set(SW_CURR_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
-        set(SW_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
-    else()
-        set(SW_CURR_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
-        set(SW_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR})
-    endif()
-
+    set(SW_CURR_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
+    set(SW_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
     set(outfile ${SW_CURR_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR}/${_output})
     set(${_out_var} ${outfile}) # This variable is set for convenience to use in the calling CMakeLists.txt
 
-    if (GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS)
-        add_custom_command (
-            OUTPUT ${outfile}
-            DEPENDS ${_input} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/common/base-typemaps.i ${ARGN}
-            COMMAND ${SWIG_EXECUTABLE} -guile ${SWIG_ARGS} -Linkage module -I${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libgnucash/engine -I${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/common  -o ${outfile} ${_input}
-        )
-        add_custom_target(${_target} DEPENDS ${outfile})
-    endif()
-
-    # Add the output file outfile to the dist tarball
-    dist_add_generated (${GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS} ${_output})
+    add_custom_command (
+        OUTPUT ${outfile}
+        DEPENDS ${_input} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/common/base-typemaps.i ${ARGN}
+        COMMAND ${SWIG_EXECUTABLE} -guile ${SWIG_ARGS} -Linkage module -I${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libgnucash/engine -I${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/common  -o ${outfile} ${_input}
+    )
+    add_custom_target(${_target} DEPENDS ${outfile})
 endmacro (gnc_add_swig_guile_command)
 
 
 # gnc_add_swig_python_command is used to generate python swig wrappers
-# it will only really generate the wrappers when building from git
-# when building from tarball it will set up everything so the version of the wrapper
 # from the tarball will be used instead
 # - _target is the name of a global target that will be set for this wrapper file,
 #    this can be used elsewhere to create a depencency on this wrapper
 # - _out_var will be set to the full path to the generated wrapper file
-#   when building from git, it points to the actually generated file
-#   however when building from a tarball, it will point to the version from the tarball instead
 # - _py_out_var is the same but for the python module that's generated together with the wrapper
-# - _output is the name of the wrapper file to generate (or to look up in the tarball)
+# - _output is the name of the wrapper file to generate
 # - _py_output is the name of the python module associated with this wrapper
 # - _input is the swig interface file (*.i) to generate this wrapper from
 # Any additional parameters will be used as dependencies for this wrapper target
 macro (gnc_add_swig_python_command _target _out_var _py_out_var _output _py_output _input)
 
-    if (GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS)
-        set(SW_CURR_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
-        set(SW_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
-    else()
-        set(SW_CURR_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
-        set(SW_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR})
-    endif()
-
+    set(SW_CURR_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
+    set(SW_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
     set(outfile ${SW_CURR_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR}/${_output})
     set(${_out_var} ${outfile}) # This variable is set for convenience to use in the calling CMakeLists.txt
 
     set(py_outfile ${SW_CURR_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR}/${_py_output})
     set(${_py_out_var} ${py_outfile}) # This variable is set for convenience to use in the calling CMakeLists.txt
 
-    if (GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS)
-        set (DEFAULT_SWIG_PYTHON_FLAGS
-            -python -py3
-            -Wall -Werror
-            ${SWIG_ARGS}
-        )
-        set (DEFAULT_SWIG_PYTHON_C_INCLUDES
-            ${GLIB2_INCLUDE_DIRS}
-            ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/common
-            ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libgnucash/engine
-            ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libgnucash/app-utils
-        )
-
-        set (PYTHON_SWIG_FLAGS ${DEFAULT_SWIG_PYTHON_FLAGS})
-        foreach (dir ${DEFAULT_SWIG_PYTHON_C_INCLUDES})
-            list (APPEND PYTHON_SWIG_FLAGS "-I${dir}")
-        endforeach (dir)
-        add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${outfile} ${py_outfile}
-            COMMAND ${SWIG_EXECUTABLE} ${PYTHON_SWIG_FLAGS} -o ${outfile} ${_input}
-            DEPENDS ${_input} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/common/base-typemaps.i ${ARGN}
-        )
-        add_custom_target(${_target} ALL DEPENDS ${outfile} ${py_outfile} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/common/base-typemaps.i ${_input} ${ARGN})
-    endif()
+    set (DEFAULT_SWIG_PYTHON_FLAGS
+        -python -py3
+        -Wall -Werror
+        ${SWIG_ARGS}
+    )
+    set (DEFAULT_SWIG_PYTHON_C_INCLUDES
+        ${GLIB2_INCLUDE_DIRS}
+        ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/common
+        ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libgnucash/engine
+        ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libgnucash/app-utils
+    )
 
-    # Add the output files _output and _py_output to the dist tarball
-    dist_add_generated (${GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS} ${_output} ${_py_output})
+    set (PYTHON_SWIG_FLAGS ${DEFAULT_SWIG_PYTHON_FLAGS})
+    foreach (dir ${DEFAULT_SWIG_PYTHON_C_INCLUDES})
+        list (APPEND PYTHON_SWIG_FLAGS "-I${dir}")
+    endforeach (dir)
+    add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${outfile} ${py_outfile}
+        COMMAND ${SWIG_EXECUTABLE} ${PYTHON_SWIG_FLAGS} -o ${outfile} ${_input}
+        DEPENDS ${_input} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/common/base-typemaps.i ${ARGN}
+    )
+    add_custom_target(${_target} ALL DEPENDS ${outfile} ${py_outfile} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/common/base-typemaps.i ${_input} ${ARGN})
 endmacro()
diff --git a/common/cmake_modules/MakeDistFiles.cmake b/common/cmake_modules/MakeDistFiles.cmake
index 277374dc12..a32a11908a 100644
--- a/common/cmake_modules/MakeDistFiles.cmake
+++ b/common/cmake_modules/MakeDistFiles.cmake
@@ -39,10 +39,9 @@ endfunction()
 # options were passed to cmake.
 # To determine this, the first parameter passed to this function should
 # be an indicator whether or not the files in the list are actually built
-# in this configuration. At the time of this writing there are two
-# cmake variables that control this, and hence can be used here:
+# in this configuration. At the time of this writing there is one
+# cmake variable that controls this, and hence can be used here:
 # BUILDING_FROM_VCS: is YES when building from a git source tree
-# GENERATE_SWIG_WRAPPERS: is YES when the swig wrappers should be built
 function (dist_add_generated_internal _needs_target _is_built)
     if (_is_built)
         set (DIST_BUILD_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})