Hi Karl,
thanks for the detailed answers.
We've run few more tests, and we've found a couple more issues.
1. As you pointed out, TAR_OPTIONS is working fine from the command
line, but it doesn't work when written inside Makefile.am, neither on
Mac, nor on Linux.
$ TAR_OPTIONS="--version"
$ export TAR_OPTIONS
2. The workaround we were attempting uses an AS_IF to initialize a
variable to be used as argument in AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE, but
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is reading that variable as an option. Are we missing
something regarding the syntax of autotools?
3. Feature request: it would be nice to have a "tar-no-owner" option for
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE that sets user and group ids to 0. (The "privileges"
issue apparently is only when extracting with --same-owner, so intended)
Best,
Giacomo