Bug#639720: Simplify build system using libtoolize and autoreconf

[Francesco P. Lovergine]

On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 07:48:15PM +0200, Svante Signell wrote:
> Package: libhdf4
> Version: 4.2r4-12
> Severity: normal
> Tags: patch
> 
> Hello, 
> 
> the (to be) attached patch simplifies the build system as well as reducing the
> number of files being patched. By using libtoolize and autoreconf all
> patches referring to  aclocal.m4, configure, Makefile.in, h4config.h.in,
> depcomp, install-sh, ltmain.sh, missing, mkinstalldirs, config.guess,
> config.sub are not needed any longer. The debian/rules part of the patch
> is inlined below:
> 


Svante

I'm perfectly aware of the possibility to run autotools on fly in rules.
I simply disagree about that for a few reasons which can be summarized
in a simple way: doing that exposes to more FTBS errors during the 
development cycle (when autotools versions change) 
than doing it once with a known working set of tools when (and only when) 
it is strictly required.

It is the same reason that motivates me to use maintainer mode in
my own set of automake scripts for all programs I write.

Cheers.

-- 
Francesco P. Lovergine