[pdkl95]

Yes, incluinding the maintainer-mode option can be important, which is why this line should be included in configure.ac most of the time when using automake:

    AM_MAINTAINER_MODE([enable])

This includes the --disable-maintainer-mode configure option, while leaving maintainer mode on by default which is the traditional behavior you get when you don't include that macro. This shouldn't change any behavior for most projects.

You can change the default to off with the same macro, if that is important; the key point is to include the macro so it can be changed by the automated packaging scripts used in some distributions.

I recommend Autotools Mythbuster[1] for a nice overview of how to use modern versions of autotools, including maintainer mode[2].

[1] https://autotools.io/

[2] https://autotools.io/automake/maintainer.html