how to patch configure.ac and not require autotools

[Rex Dieter]

Dan Horák wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I need to patch configure.ac so it doesn't explicitely add '-s' to
> LDFLAGS (see
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=194782). From a
> discussion started in
> http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-extras-list/2005-October/msg01545.html it is forbidden to use autotools during the build process and it suggests to patch configure and the other generated files too. But in my situation the only files that differ are configure.ac and configure. And after applying the patch their timestamps are set to the current time and because other files (Makefile.am, config.h, ...) depend on them, they want to be regenerated. The whole package seem buildable without the autotools, but with some not very nice messages about missing automake, autoconf, etc in the buildlog.

I guess I missed the conclusion that using auto* tools is absolutely
forgidden.  AFAIK, it's not in the PackagingGuidelines, and there are
certainly valid cases where their use is warranted (this may be one of
them).  I'd suggest simply patching things and
BuildRequires: automake autoconf
and be done with it.

-- Rex