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+                        History of the Autoconf Archive
+                        ===============================
+
+2009-04-26:
+
+        Obsolete macros were deleted from the archive. The release tarballs
+        will no longer contain them, but the download URLs will continue to
+        work for the foreseeable future. For every deleted macros, there is
+        also a stub HTML page the features an appropriate link into the Git
+        repository.
+
+        The last-modified-date section was removed from all m4 files. The
+        information is redundant: the GIT repository contains that
+        information (and much more). Originally, the idea behind that
+        timestamp was that users should always be able to infer the macros
+        "version", i.e. even from a generated configure script. In practice,
+        however, that didn't work well. For one, those timestamps have a
+        tendency to be plain wrong. Secondly, even if the timestamp was
+        correct, it's presence still didn't tell you that the macro you're
+        seeing is actually identical with the one in the Autoconf Archive.
+        After 9 years of trouble with that bit, I conclude that keeping
+        unique version information inside of the file that's supposed to be
+        versioned just isn't a good idea.
+
+        The "copyleft" section has been renamed to "license" for greater
+        accuracy. Some licenses, like all-permissive, are not really
+        copylefts.
+
+        The cross-reference graphs have been removed from the HTML pages.
+        These dot-graphs were useful a while ago, when the archive was
+        comparatively small, but with the current number 500+ macros, those
+        graphs tended to be far too large to be useful.
+
+        Ensured that all files to refer to this project consistently as
+        "Autoconf Archive".
+
+        Fixed some charset issues in the generated HTML files. Now, all
+        pages are written in plain ASCII, and special characters are encoded
+        as HTML entities.
+
+        Added an by-license index page.
+
+2008-04-12:
+
+        The markup format distributed by the Autoconf Archive has changed to
+        accomodate the aclocal utility distributed with Automake. Further
+        details are available in the GIT repository:
+
+          http://git.cryp.to/autoconf-archive?a=commit;h=76c7d0ad8925ab22e3bb50c8b27b333f31303c74
+
+2007-08-22:
+
+        The macro documentation shipped in the release tarball now features
+        cross-references.
+
+2007-07-29:
+
+        This release is the first one to be distributed under the terms of
+        the updated General Public License, version 3.
+
+2007-02-18:
+
+        The Autoconf Archive provides a public GIT repository that can be
+        cloned as follows:
+
+          git clone http://git.cryp.to/autoconf-archive
+
+        A web front-end is available under the same URL.
+
+        As a new feature, the web front-end allows every macro to link
+        directly into the repository for its own history.
+
+2006-10-23:
+
+        The Autoconf Archive switched to a new distribution format. Unlike
+        the previous one, the new format has no visible markup and looks
+        pretty much like formatted text. The m4 files now link to their home
+        page. Also new is that the copyright licenses are spelled out.
+
+2005-02-14:
+
+        The Autoconf Archive repository has moved from gnu.org to
+        <http://autoconf-archive.cryp.to/>, mostly because running on my own
+        infrastructure is far more convenient than depending on Savannah.
+
+        This release is the first one to have an out-of-the-box installation
+        procedure using Autoconf/Automake.
+
+        To travel back in time, go to:
+
+          http://web.archive.org/web/20050215104509/http://autoconf-archive.cryp.to/
+
+2005-01-28:
+
+        The Free Software Foundation recommends the all-permissive license
+        for Autoconf Macros. In an heroic effort, Tom Howard has contacted
+        each and every macro author in an attempt to get their permission to
+        re-license their work under the less restrictive license. More than
+        50 positive responses are received.
+
+2005-01-21:
+
+        Moved all macros into a flat hierarchy. Previous releases determined
+        a macro's category by the name of the directory it was in. This
+        convention no longer necessary. Having the files in a flat hierarchy
+        works vastly better with the aclocal(1) utility than the previous
+        layout.
+
+        This release also marks the departure from free-style version
+        numbers. All version information is expressed as an ISO 8601 date. A
+        macro's version is the date of its last modification in the Archive.
+
+2001-07-14:
+
+        The Autoconf Archive repository has moved from cryp.to to
+        <http://www.gnu.org/software/ac-archive/>. This change brings mostly
+        public access to the CVS repository at Savannah. The move also
+        allows the project to dub itself the "GNU Autoconf Archive".
+
+        To travel back in time, go to:
+
+          http://web.archive.org/web/20010715000147/www.gnu.org/software/ac-archive/
+
+2001-05-19:
+
+        Moved from research.cys.de to <http://cryp.to/autoconf-archive/>.
+
+        To travel back in time, go to:
+
+          http://web.archive.org/web/20010119114000/http://research.cys.de/
+
+2000-06-15:
+
+        First version on-line at <http://research.cys.de/autoconf-archive/>.