Autoconf distributions and xz dependency

[Bob Friesenhahn]

This reply should have been sent to the autoconf list rather than 
directly to Eric.  The below is what I sent to Eric:

On Thu, 1 Mar 2012, Eric Blake wrote:

> The Autoconf team is considering releasing only .xz files for 2.69; if
> this would be a hardship for you, and you need the .gz or .bz2 release,
> please speak up now.

> From what I have seen (and from its own documentation), the 'xz' implementation 
is not particularly portable and it requires considerable resources (e.g. 
memory) so it is unwise to discard the well-supported .gz format.  The world 
will not particularly suffer if autoconf distribution files consume more 
storage than absolutely required.  I would toss the .bz2 format if a format 
needs to be removed.

Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/