[PATCH] configure: Stop using AM_MAINTAINER_MODE

[Gaetan Nadon]

On 12-10-02 04:09 PM, Julien Cristau wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 30, 2012 at 16:45:17 -0400, Gaetan Nadon wrote:
>
>> On 12-09-29 04:37 PM, Dan Nicholson wrote:
>>>> Some distros may prefer maintainer mode. A way to appease everyone is:
>>>>
>>>> AM_MAINTAINER_MODE([enable])
>>> Oh, yeah. That would be the best.
>>>
>> The historical background is that mode was added as a CVS tarball
>> timestamp loss workaround before the git days. Whoever wishes to keep
>> this workaround should demonstrate that they extract tarballs from CVS
>> and want to prevent the build to re-create the configuration because the
>> timestamp was lost and files appear to be out-of-date.
>>
> Well for us as I recall it was not so much cvs as
> - extract tarball
> - patch configure.ac and configure (or Makefile.am and Makefile.in,
>   whatever)
> - run configure && make
> - make tries to run some autotool because the timestamps are screwed up
>   and it thinks the generated file is out of date
> - that fails because the autotools aren't installed in your build
>   chroot.
>
> Cheers,
> Julien
>
I could have misinterpreted what is written in here
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2003-02/msg00036.html, but it
looks like timestamps were screwed up right after extracting from CVS,
no need to actually edit any config files. I guess there could be other
scenarios as well.

I mentioned this because most people don't know why the code is the way
it is today. That was done like 10 years or so ago. I'd rather delete
the workaround code as opposed to make it dead code and having to
explain it for the next 20 years. It'd be nice to hear from people who
actually "lived" trough this era as I just "read" about it.