[Fedora-packaging] Re: PackagingDrafts/AutoConf

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Wed, 2008-10-15 at 10:53 +0200, Till Maas wrote:
> On Wed October 15 2008, Braden McDaniel wrote:
> > On Wed, 2008-10-15 at 09:52 +0200, Enrico Scholz wrote:
> 
> > > Use 'touch --reference' and submit an patch to upstream which adds
> > > 'AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' to configure.ac.
> >
> > Many maintainers have made a conscious choice not to use that macro.  I
> > know I have.
> 
> Why?

I can't speak for Braden, but AM_MAINTAINER_MODE is _VERY_
controversial.  Some people like it, others hate it.

Read "info Automake" for more details.


In a nutshell: 
AM_MAINTAINER_MODE suppresses the deps we are discussing here.

This allows people to get away with packages containing broken
timestamps, which introduces risks to upstreams if not handled with care
and is unhandy for upstream usage.


FWIW:
I am upstream maintainer of a package, which uses AM_MAINTAINER_MODE. 
The most frequently answered question related to building issues is:
"Did you pass --enable-maintainer-mode?"

Openly said, I regret ever having introduce it to this package's
configuration.

Ralf