Build-depends: autoconf, automake ?

[Steve Robbins <steven.robbins@videotron.ca>]

Hi,

The package I'm working on [Geomview] uses automake & autoconf, so I
thought "great!  I know how this stuff works".  But I keep running into
small buglets like the following.


1. Automake inserts a makefile variable "TAR" into every Makefile.in
generated.  Upstream has "TAR = gtar", but I have "TAR = tar", greatly
(and needlessly) inflating the .diff.  The value of TAR is hardcoded into
automake itself.


2. I patch configure.in, so after "dpkg-source -x ...", timestamps on
various files may be messed up, triggering makefile rules to rebuild
configure or Makefile.in, etc.  [If you've ever built an automake'ified
project, you'll know what I'm talking about.]

Unfortunately, one of the things run is "aclocal", but without the
necessary "-I m4" flag, causing the build to fail.  [Amusingly, the build
would work if automake was not installed, because the "missing" script
will just touch the files to get the timestamps in the right order.]



In light of the above, one solution that suggests itself is to just stick
autoconf and automake in the Build-depends line, and

1. run "make maintainer-clean" in debian/rules(clean), to avoid diffing
   Makefile.in files, and

2. insert the proper sequence of "aclocal -I m4", "autoheader",
   "autoconf", etc in debian/rules(configure).


Is it kosher to require auto* tools for building stuff?  Are there 
pitfalls with this that I'm overlooking?  What do other people do?


Thanks,
-S