how to patch configure.ac and not require autotools

[Jason L Tibbitts III]

>>>>> "TL" == Thorsten Leemhuis <fedora at leemhuis.info> writes:

TL> I tend to think the "running auto* in spec files might break
TL> sooner or later" is true, but how ofter does it break and is it
TL> worth the hassle to create patches?

Could someone detail just how things get broken and what things we
should be looking out for?  I'm reviewing a package now (aplus-fsf,
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=174021) that
patches Makefile.am files all over the place and then calls the
autotools.  This is a really old piece of software but once massaged a
bit it puts everything in the proper places and runs fine.  I don't
see any problem with what it's doing, and I don't understand why it
would be any better to do a bunch of hacking just to avoid calling the
autotools.

 - J<