Why does Autoconf require GNU M4?
Many M4 implementations have hard-coded limitations on the size and number of macros that Autoconf exceeds. They also lack several builtin macros that it would be difficult to get along without in a sophisticated application like Autoconf, including:
m4_builtin
m4_indir
m4_bpatsubst
__file__
__line__
Autoconf requires version 1.4.6 or later of GNU M4.
Since only software maintainers need to use Autoconf, and since GNU M4 is simple to configure and install, it seems reasonable to require GNU M4 to be installed also. Many maintainers of GNU and other free software already have most of the GNU utilities installed, since they prefer them.