Merge branch 'master' into ng/master

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