Ralf Corsepius <rc040203(a)freenet.de> writes:
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.
When you are upstream, you have probably mechanism/scripts to call
configure with special parameters (e.g. adding '-g3' to CFLAGS,
setting a writable '--prefix', setting another CC). Putting an
'--enable-maintainer-mode' there does not harm.
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?"
Reducing stability (-> occasional autotool invocations in uncontrolled
environments) and removing features (-> ability to patch configure) just
to avoid some support requests is a bad deal.
Enrico