Re: autoreconf --force seemingly does not forcibly update everything

[Bruno Haible]

Nick Bowler wrote:
> If I distribute a release package, what I have tested is exactly what is
> in that package.  If you start replacing different versions of m4 macros,
> or use some distribution-patched autoconf/automake/libtool or whatever,
> then this you have invalidated any and all release testing.

+1

Last month, I spent 2 days on prerelease testing of coreutils. If, after
downloading the carefully prepared tarball from ftp.gnu.org, the first
thing a distro does is to throw away the *.m4 files and regenerate the
configure script with their own one,
  * It shows no respect for the QA work that the upstream developers have
    put in.
  * It increases the number of bug reports that reach upstream and yet
    are caused by the distro.
  * In the long run, the upstream maintainers will be less willing to
    handle bug reports from users of this distro.

Bruno