[FYI] Merge branch 'minor' into micro after 1.15 release

[Stefano Lattarini]

commit 0504f991102aebb57fb31e4d7c85a1f2d7ea8006
Merge: b8aa9fc db43dd4
Author:     Stefano Lattarini <address@hidden>
AuthorDate: Mon Jan 5 21:54:00 2015 +0100
Commit:     Stefano Lattarini <address@hidden>
CommitDate: Mon Jan 5 21:57:05 2015 +0100

    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 <address@hidden>