Re: [debhelper-devel] Bug#879478: debhelper: dh_testroot regression: relies on debian/control

[Niels Thykier <niels@thykier.net>]

Cyril Brulebois:
> Package: debhelper
> Version: 10.10
> Severity: serious
> Tags: d-i
> Justification: triggers FTBFS
> 
> [ Please keep both debian-boot@ and myself in the loop, thanks. ]
> 
> Hi,
> 
> debian-installer uses compat 7, a build/ directory, and its daily-build
> script is started from this directory. Makefiles use dh_testroot from
> that directory, and starting with 10.10, the build is broken because of:

Hi Cyril

I am sorry to hear that this broke a build for you.

> [...]
> It seems to me that's due to the getpackages call addition, but I don't
> think it's reasonable for debhelper to break compat 7 this way.

Unfortunately, I cannot even fix this by guarding it with a compat bump
(because that will die as it cannot find debian/compat).  For now, I
will have it issue a warning and continue (plus make some assumptions
about what the d/control file would have contained).  But eventually, I
will remove that fallback and that *cannot* happen with a compat bump.

For you, an easy fix appears be to re-arrange the lines:

	dh_testroot
	@[ -d ../debian ] || { echo "directory '../debian' [...] }

Into:

	@[ -d ../debian ] || { echo "directory '../debian' [...] }
	cd .. && dh_testroot

(Only occurs two places AFAICT in the Makefile).  This change would also
be backwards compatible for you.

> Also,
> even if one might object d-i is abusing dh_testroot (or using it
> incorrectly), its documented purpose is:
> | dh_testroot simply checks to see if you are root. If not, it exits
> | with an error. Debian packages must be built as root, though you can
> | use fakeroot(1)
> 
> 
> KiBi.
> [...]

The scope of dh_testroot has changed and I have committed an update of
the documentation of dh_testroot targeting 10.10.1.  Furthermore, I have
added a note in debhelper.7 that all debhelper tools must be run from
the unpacked source root (except where otherwise noted).

Thanks,
~Niels