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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.
"Plans" for future or on-going Automake development. The contents is meant to help ensure a more controlled and smooth development and evolution for Automake, in several ways. - Having the plans clearly spelled out should will avoid messy roadmaps with no clear way forward or with muddy or ill-defined aims or purposes; a trap this is too easy to fall into. - Keeping planned changes cooking and re-hashed for a while should ensure rough edges are smoothed up, transitions are planned in a proper way (hopefully avoiding debacles like the AM_MKDIR_PROG_P deprecation and the AM_CONFIG_HEADER too-abrupt removal), and "power users" have more chances of getting informed in due time, thus having all the time to prepare for the changes or raise objections against them. - Having the plans clearly stated and registered in a "centralized" location should make it more difficult to them to slip through the cracks, getting forgotten or (worse) only half-implemented. - Even for discussions and plans registered on the Bug Tracker as well, a corresponding entry in the PLANS directory can help in keeping main ideas summarized, and consensus and/or objections registered and easily compared.