Merge branch 'minor' into micro after 1.15 release

Merge branch 'minor' into micro after 1.15 release

And bump version number: 1.15 -> 1.15.0a

* minor:
  release: stable minor release 1.15
  NEWS: minor improvements and fixed some typos and grammaros
  docs: "make distcheck" implementation details are not to be abused
  NEWS: improve and adjust in light of the oncoming 1.15 release
  Fix dumb logic error preventing $install_sh from being be overridden
  Expose automake bug#19311
  build: fix race in parallel builds
  init: ensure $ac_aux_dir is defined before being used
  plans: enabling subdir-object by default is blocked on bug#13928
  maint: update copyright years
  maint: sync files from upstream ("make fetch")
  Typofixes in warning messages and manual
  NEWS: a typofix, and better word wrapping
  parallel-tests: avoid possible implicit "make all" in test-suite.log rule
  Allow user to extend .PRECIOUS target
  cosmetics: remove a couple of extra trailing white spaces
  tests: fix a spurious failure on Mac OS X
  docs: make clear the JAVA primary is frozen
  install-sh: a slightly better diagnostic, and tests enhancements
  install-sh: be stricter in catching invalid usages
  tests: more significant names for some tests
  tests: some cosmetic fixes
  tests: more significant names for a test
  docs: drop a few obsolescent FIXME/TODO comments, and associated text
  testsuite harness: report test exit status in log file
  TAP driver: no need to invoke AC_PROG_AWK directly
  TAP driver: remove perl implementation (move it into contrib/)
  NEWS: stop reporting "new" Automake versioning scheme
  cosmetics: untabify the install-sh script
  install-sh: assume that "set -f" and "set +f" work...
  install-sh: assume ${var:-value} works as expected
  install-sh: assume 'dirname' is available and working correctly
  post-release: micro version bump (1.14a)

Signed-off-by: Stefano Lattarini <stefano.lattarini@gmail.com>