Subject: bug#31728: Automake and AM_WITH_DMALLOC; endorsing proprietary software?

From: Karl Berry <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2021 15:42:48 -0700

Mike,

    i tend to agree with this sentiment that the macro doesn't really fit
    with automake's mission.  and more importantly, i think the ecosystem
    has grown significantly since the macro was first added back in 1996.

I also agree, but I still wouldn't want to delete the macro and thus
gratuitously break people's working automake setups.  People might well
have AM_WITH_DMALLOC left over from when they were debugging 20 years
ago.  There is no reason to make them spend time thinking about it now,
IMHO -- even if all they have to do is remove it, that's too much to ask
for no actual gain.

Instead, let's update the doc to recognize the situation.
Can you draft something, mentioning the other tools, along the lines of
what you wrote in this email?

If anyone ever comes along with a need for dmalloc or to update the
macro (unlikely), we could go further then.

If dmalloc were (still) nonfree, it would be a different story.

Thanks,
Karl