[pacman-dev] [PATCH] Add AM_MAINTAINER_MODE to configure.ac and disable by default

[Allan McRae]

On 09/02/15 12:27, Jan Alexander Steffens wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 2:45 AM, Allan McRae <allan at archlinux.org> wrote:
>> Are there objections to applying this patch - at least until a proper
>> solution is found?
> 
> A few years ago there was a bit of drama in GNOME about projects
> disabling maintainer mode. Might be worth reading and looking further.
> 
> http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2011/09/08/am_maintainer_mode-is-not-cool/
> 
> (AM_MAINTAINER_MODE without parameters is equivalent to ([disable]))
> 

I am quite aware of this and think that blog post is wrong :P

We want the TESTS file automatically updated. So there is the option
between:
1) having AM_MAINTAINER_MODE([disable]) added
2) requiring the specific version of automake/aclocal I used to make the
tarball to build pacman
3) removing/altering the *.in pactest to not require dynamically
generating it.

Not sure how we would do 3), and 2) is a non-option. That leaves 1).

The only effect (apart from fixing the build...) that adding
AM_MAINTAINER_MODE([disable]) has on the build process is that if you
patch configure.ac/Makefile.am, you have to run ./autogen.sh to update
the build scripts.

Allan