[oe] [RFC] Make autotools.bbclass warn and fixup for "needs newer autoconf" breakage

[Koen Kooi]

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Hi,

Every now and then the world moves to a more recent autoconf (2.64 is
popular nowadays) and distros in OE have to to through a lengthy
test-fix-bump cycle to keep up. The workaround for such a problem
usually is:

do_configure() {
	gnu-configize
	oe_runconf
}

That gets us the config.guess for exotic targets (e.g. avr32) and runs
the in-tree configure script. What are your opinions on adding something
like this to autotools.bbclass:

if ((needed autoconf > installed autoconf) && configure exists)
	BIG FAT WARNING
	skip libtoolize + reconf

The biggest problem with that is that is "silently" degrades when using
the "wrong autoconf" and the possibility for mismatched
do_configure_prepend/append  methods.

Do the benefits (not littering recipes with global shortcuts) outweigh
the downsides?

regards,

Koen
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