It seems that we could also read the requested versions of automake and autoconf from debian/control and export them automatically using:
[...]
Does this sound like a good idea?
IMHO this sounds like a very good idea.Consequently, dh_autoreconf should become a no-op if autoconf is missing from the build-depends (how about automake and autopoint?). Similarly, the LIBTOOLIZE variable should be set to "true" is libtool is missing from the build-depends. In any case, dh-autoreconf should be *verbose* about what it does or does not (and maybe even call autoreconf with the '-v' parameter to achieve more meaningful logs).
- Fabian