README.Debian suggest to cp -f config.sub and config.guess
inconditionnaly.

However, in the (admittedly few) cases where upstream is more
up-to-date, this leads to a downgrade.

Can you update the sample code so that tests are made (eg config.sub
--version | sed ...)

Thanks,

How about something like this attachment?

First, let me apologise for the absurd amount of time it took to reply
to this bug report.

I put a lot of thought on your proposal, and while I can see the
value of it, I am somewhat wary of adding the anti-downgrade test.

An anti-downgrade feature really only matters to Debian maintainers or
to upstream development done on Debian.  Users never need to care.

For DDs, it only matters if autotools-dev gets outdated in Sid for a
new arch.

For upstream developers that use Debian, a better solution than the
anti-downgrade test is needed anyway if they need to ship stuff with
more up-to-date autotools than what we have in stable.

So, it looks to me like an extra risk (upstream could change the
format of the datespec) and extra complexity for no real gain.

Do you have any arguments which could negate the above and convince me
to add that script?

Well, downgrading just sounds wrong to me.

If you feel it's safe to potentially downgrade all config.*-using
upstream projects (without warning), then leave things as is, but I
don't think the less-risky choice is obvious here.

Btw, from what I remember, the package that lead me to write this was
tla aka GNU Arch, which uses config.* but doesn't use the autotools.

The README also says (maybe that was added after this bug report):

"The best way to get the updated files into the package is to remove all
auto-generated files in the clean target, and to use autoreconf and related
commands to regenerate the build system at build time"

In this case, config.guess and config.sub will be regenerated anyway. Doesn't this
completely remove the need of doing this copy/link? (the files are linked in the
'rules' file given in example)

Then (sorry if this is a bit outside of the scope of the original bug report):

"When updating auto-generated files, always remove them all in the clean
target, and recreate them in a prerequisite of the build targets.  Do not
autoreconf or freshen config.sub and config.guess on the clean target, as
this would cause a lot of useless cruft to migrate to the Debian diff, and
can break the new quilt-like dpkg source format."

But in the 'rules' file given in example, the 'configure' target which is executing
autoreconf is also a prerequisite of the 'clean' target. ? Am I missing something
or ...

Cheers,

Loris