dh_auto_configure: --disable-maintainer-mode

[themusicgod1]

when building libcpuid ( https://notabug.org/themusicgod1/libcpuid/ ) dh_auto_configure tries to send in an option to configure "--disable-maintainer-mode". This is not recognized(anymore?).

debuild -us -uc -b
...
dh_auto_configure
 ./configure --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --includedir=\${prefix}/include --mandir=\${prefix}/share/man --infodir=\${prefix}/share/info --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --disable-silent-rules --libdir=\${prefix}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --libexecdir=\${prefix}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --disable-maintainer-mode --disable-dependency-tracking
configure: WARNING: unrecognized options: --disable-maintainer-mode

removing --disable-maintainer-mode from

debhelper-11.3.2ubuntu1/lib/Debian/Debhelper/Buildsystem/autoconf.pm

and the corresponding test in debhelper-11.3.2ubuntu1/t/buildsystems/autoconf/configure
made debhelper no longer pass in the offending option, and the warning went away.

debhelper:
  Installed: 11.3.2ubuntu1
  Candidate: 11.3.2ubuntu1
Ubuntu: 19.04 disco

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
Package: debhelper 11.3.2ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-11.12-generic 4.18.12
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-11-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu14
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Dec 3 23:59:56 2018
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: debhelper
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2018-11-23 (10 days ago)

[Juhani Numminen (jsonic)]

Hi,

That warning does not indicate a problem and can be ignored.

From a little googling I gather that the proposed patch could break any software that has AM_MAINTAINER_MODE but not AM_MAINTAINER_MODE([enable]) in configure.ac.

https://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2011/09/08/am_maintainer_mode-is-not-cool/
https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/html_node/maintainer_002dmode.html
https://autotools.io/automake/maintainer.html
https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=AM_MAINTAINER_MODE.*%28enable%29%7B0%7D&perpkg=1

Regards,
Juhani

[themusicgod1 (themusicgod1)]

...would it make sense to link to this reason why(eg some maintainers in other projects actually do use it) in the error message, rather than just warning about it? Would a more descriptive warning message make sense so the next guy doesn't submit the same patch?