configury patch to manage whitespace

[Paolo Bonzini]

DJ Delorie wrote:
> This is an attempt to work around the "value has changed since
> previous run" message that autoconf sometimes emits.  I've been told
> that autoconf 2.60 manages variables in sub-configures differently,
> which may (perhaps should) also fix this problem.

You obviously know that, but I will point oout nevertheless that we are 
not using GNU make features in toplevel Makefile.

> Is this a direction we want to go in?  Or should we begin to look at
> migrating to a newer autoconf?

I lost track of this.  Steve Ellcey was working on it, I suppose?

Paolo