[bug-hello] bootstrap vs. autoreconf

[Karl Berry]

Regarding the question of a bootstrap script.

I think that GNU Hello (and thus by implication all GNU packages :)
*should* provide a bootstrap script, for building out of CVS.

Perhaps all bootstrap will do in many cases is call autoreconf.  But I
still think it should be provided, because it gives the maintainer
flexibility to do other things:

- autoconf is not required for GNU packages.  It's required that they
  implement the GNU coding standards, and we surely *recommend*
  autoconf (and automake), but ...

- the bootstrap script is a convenient place to warn people about
  vagaries of building from CVS, because (unlike README files), people
  are actually going to run it.  In the case of Texinfo, I tell people
  that they have to use --enable-maintainer-mode.  (Let's not have that
  discussion again. :)

- in practice, right now I believe autoreconf cannot really be used with
  gnulib.  When I tried this for Texinfo, autoreconf overwrote lots of
  new gnulib files with its own older versions.  So my bootstrap runs 
$ACLOCAL -I m4 && $AUTOHEADER && $AUTOMAKE && $AUTOCONF

More thoughts about gnulib (which I strongly believe hello should use)
in a separate message.