pretty basic upgrade questions

[Samuel Wales]

haven't upgraded from maint.  have changes that automatically rebase
on top of upstream org.  currently run make oldorg.

is git clone best, to clean up tags etc.?  then i use git branch
bugfix, then kinda try to figure out rebasing, and use make, not
oldorg?

also, i'm not sure if the manual's make autoloads is necessary if you
do make.  maybe that could be clarified in the manual?

also, the manual says you can "create a local configuration with ‘make
config", but doesn't specify.  what is a configuration?