Autoconf/Automake versions needed to build make from CVS

[J. Grant]

Hello

I was about to test some changes on my GNU/Linux computer.  I found that
the latest CVS source requires "Autoconf version 2.58 or higher".  I
manually upgraded my distro version to 2.57 last year with great pains.

I was wondering why make needs to use the latest Autoconf version?
Would it be possible to not use the latest edition of the tools and opt
for a stable version that have been in use for 12-24 months etc?  In the
same way that GNU Make is compilable with many year old compilers it
would be great if the scripted side of the source code tree was also
compatible with older distribution toolchains!

An alternative might be for the resulting generated "configure" etc to
be imported into the CVS.  I believe this is how GNU Binutils is
structured, I am able to compile their latest CVS source code by using
their pre-generated "configure" etc.

If doing this could be considered that would be great :)

Even the latest msys-DTK-1.0.1.exe is only including autoconf 2.56. I am
about to try some individual autoconf component upgrades for the moment.

Kind regards

JG