> Apparently it doesn't run libtoolize, and there is some libtool stuff
  > checked in to CVS.

  That is because they keep changing the macros, or at least shifting them
  between packages. It used to be automatically run when you defined the
  AM_PROG_LIBTOOL macro in the configure.in file, which is what we do. But
  now they have moved it to AC_PROG_LIBTOOL, but there is no backward
  compatibility for anyone using the old name. Changing to the new name
  ofcourse breaks it for anyone using the older autoconf tools.

ugh.  Well, the current cvs lost when compiling on my up-to-date
netbsd system since it seemed libtool was in cvs but ltmain.sh wasn't,
and the libtool m4 macros that aclocal picked up were out of sync with
the libtool in cvs.  So I wonder if things have to be all from the
same tools, or none-run-them-all-yourself.  For CVS, I favor the
latter.

  The ones included in the Debian-stable distribution are probably
  reasonable representative for the average system. It has autoconf 2.53,
  automake 1.5, libtool 1.4.2 and I really want the build to work from
  distributed tarballs, although I don't care all that much for the
  bootstrap step needed for CVS builds.

That's a perfectly good list to target for; I think auto* tries to be
compatible back that far.  2.14, 1.4, and 1.2 respectively are all
pretty crufty, and telling people to upgrade in that case is IMHO
fine.
Not that this is truth, but if debian-stable and netbsd pkgsrc are up
to something (and perhaps fedora), it can be considered adequately
normal to say 'sorry, you must x'.

I guess automake 1.8 is kind of new; netbsd just went to 1.8.2, but
it's been at 1.7.x for a while.

  distributed tarballs, although I don't care all that much for the
  bootstrap step needed for CVS builds.

Not sure what you mean, but it is IMHO important for people to be able
to build from CVS reasonably easily.  But it's not that important for
people with very old tools.  I build from cvs a lot to get the bug
fixes since the last release...

-- 
        Greg Troxel <gdt_at_ir.bbn.com>