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Hash : 3562e384
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Date : 2017-09-16T13:03:36
Prefer https: URLs In Gnulib, Emacs, etc. we are changing ftp: and http: URLs to use https:, to discourage man-in-the-middle attacks when downloading software. The attached patch propagates these changes upstream to Automake. This patch does not affect files that Automake is downstream of, which I'll patch separately. Althouth the resources are not secret, plain HTTP is vulnerable to malicious routers that tamper with responses from GNU servers, and this sort of thing is all too common when people in some other countries browse US-based websites. See, for example: Aceto G, Botta A, Pescapé A, Awan MF, Ahmad T, Qaisar S. Analyzing internet censorship in Pakistan. RTSI 2016. https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/RTSI.2016.7740626 HTTPS is not a complete solution here, but it can be a significant help. The GNU project regularly serves up code to users, so we should take some care here.
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This is the 'contrib' directory of the GNU Automake distribution. Here you'll find additions to the Automake base distribution, in form of makefile fragments, m4 macros, scripts, documentation, et cetera. Such addition that might be useful for a significant percentage of its general audience, but (for one reason or another) are not deemed appropriate for inclusion into the Automake core. There are several reasons for which a feature can be kept in contrib: 1. The long-term usefulness of the feature is debatable and uncertain; on-field and real-word testing are necessary to prove or disprove its usefulness, before the feature can be committed into the Automake core (as doing so too early would later force us to continue the support for backward-compatibility, even if the features proves flawed or fails to attract widespread use). 2. The APIs or overall design of the feature are still unstable, and need on-field testing to iron warts and usability bugs, or uncover potential flaws. 3. The feature was an historical one, mostly obsoleted but still used "here and there" in the wild; so we want to to deprecate it and remove it from the Automake core, but cannot remove it altogether, for the sake of those still-existing usage. So it gets moved in contrib.