[Automake-ng] [FYI] Merge branch 'master' into ng/master

[Stefano Lattarini]

commit ad5c2a2891320be4071a92ed8a5cf7bfd0ef08a5
Merge: 9500eeb 83249bd
Author: Stefano Lattarini <address@hidden>
Date:   Sat Apr 28 11:07:34 2012 +0200

    Merge branch 'master' into ng/master

    * master:
      fixup: avoid unconditional re-bootstrapping on "make dist"
      build: ensure release year in copyright notice is up-to-date
      cosmetics: fix spacing in THANKS
      readme: explicitly state we use ranges in copyright years
      aclocal: remove the --acdir option
      bootstrap: add convenience make target
      m4: delete several obsolete macros
      automake, aclocal: update copyright year in output
      maint: don't use "union" merge driver for NEWS anymore
      build: avoid too greedy rebuilds in the testsuite
      tests: avoid yet another spurious environment influence
      tests: fix a failure in Lex/C++ tests on Mac OS X
      tests: fix a spurious failure due to truncated timestamps
      build: require autoconf 2.69
      build: don't require minimal automake version in AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
      post-release: major version bump
      post-release: minor version bump
      release: stable major release 1.12
      tests: cater to systems installing libs in /lib64
      tests: fix spurious failure on Mac OS X