autoreconf on build

[Kevin Kofler]

Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> I notice that Debian recently [since July 2014] started to recommend
> that packagers run autoreconf on build.  Their reasons are given here
> and seem to be good ones:
> 
> https://wiki.debian.org/Autoreconf

I've been arguing in favor of such a policy several times, see the mailing 
list archives. The main reason is that IMHO generated autoconf files are 
binary blobs to the same extent as prebuilt JARs, SWFs or ELF executables, 
which we all disallow. And those files that are copied verbatim are bundled 
libraries, which we also disallow. We should build from the true source 
code. It also makes it easier to make any changes to the build files if 
needed, without having to figure out first how to change the package to run 
autoreconf.

        Kevin Kofler