Re: [RFC] getting rid of the config.guess/sub problem when bootstrapping new ports/systems

[Jan Engelhardt]

On Tuesday 2013-05-21 07:33, Pavel Raiskup wrote:

>> Works for me.  But we [distros] do want to mandate autoreconf anyway in the
>> general case: it is the *only* way to keep upstream honest about the much
>> hated build system not bitrotting until it decides to blow up right when we
>> need it for a security update.
>
>I know.  But there is a lot of tarballs not able to be easily
>autoreconf-ed (more than 10 years old) and not having upstream.. and it
>needs a lot of changes downstream before autoreconf successes.. (and you
>need to have a quite good knowledge about auto-toolset).

If upstream is dead, the distros should perhaps reevaluate whether to
drop the package or de facto become upstream by a process of adoption.