Question about autoreconf to regenerate configuration files

[R. Diez]

> [...]
> but I have also unwittingly modified well over 100 files (numerous Makefile.in, aclocal.m4, and configure files).
> I'd like to understand: Is this expected or desirable? Should I not be using autoreconf for this?

This is another drawback of checking into the repository the files generated by the Autotools, see this e-mail:

require autoconf-2.69 exactly
Wed Jan 12 20:01:01 GMT 2022
https://sourceware.org/pipermail/newlib/2022/018866.html

See also the answer from Mike Frysinger about this problem:

require autoconf-2.69 exactly
Wed Jan 12 21:37:22 GMT 2022
https://sourceware.org/pipermail/newlib/2022/018867.html

Regards,
   rdiez