It is confusingly named and rarely useful. See, for example,
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2011-12/msg00089.html>.
* INSTALL.BZR: Don't mention --disable-maintainer-mode.
* Makefile.in (MAINTAINER_MODE_FLAG): Remove; all uses removed.
* configure.in: Remove --disable-maintainer-mode.
(USE_MAINTAINER_MODE, MAINT): Remove.
* admin/make-tarball.txt: Don't worry about maintainer mode.
* etc/NEWS: Mention this.
Ref: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2011-03/msg00225.html
* autogen/: New directory, to be excluded from releases.
* autogen/copy_autogen, autogen/update_autogen: New scripts.
* autogen/README: New file.
* autogen/aclocal.m4, autogen/config.in, autogen/configure:
* autogen/Makefile.in: Add auto-updated generated files.
* autogen.sh: No longer a no-op, now it tests for autotools
and runs them as necessary.
* configure.in: Defaule maintainer-mode to on.
* aclocal.m4, configure, lib/Makefile.in: Remove files.
* src/config.in: Remove file.
* INSTALL.BZR, admin/make-tarball.txt: Update instructions.
See http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2009-12/msg00758.html
* emacs.c (REPORT_EMACS_BUG_PRETEST_ADDRESS): Set it to
bug-gnu-emacs rather than emacs-pretest-bug.
* mail/emacsbug.el (report-emacs-bug-pretest-address): Set
it to bug-gnu-emacs rather than emacs-pretest-bug.
* CONTRIBUTE, NEWS: Use bug-gnu-emacs rather than emacs-pretest-bug
for bug reports for development versions.
* trouble.texi (Checklist): Use bug-gnu-emacs rather than
emacs-pretest-bug for bug reports for development versions.
* emacs-pretesters, make-announcement: Use bug-gnu-emacs rather
than emacs-pretest-bug for bug reports for development versions.
* INSTALL.BZR, README: Use bug-gnu-emacs rather than emacs-pretest-bug
for bug reports for development versions.