Lintian and Build-Depends (was Re: A question about update-excuses)
Phil Blundell wrote:
>Steve M. Robbins wrote:
>>On Thu, Apr 12, 2001 at 06:51:23PM +0100, Philip Blundell wrote:
>>
>>> The majority of failures are missing or broken build-depends.
>>
>>If so, why not alleviate the backlog by loading up the buildd
>>machines with a fuller set of -dev packages?
>
>Yeah, that would help in a lot of cases. But if we're going to do that,
>missing build-depends will never get noticed, and we might as well just throw
>in the towel and make those packages build-essential.
>
>I'll see if I can find the time to add these extra abilities to lintian. The
>technology already exists in sbuild so it shouldn't be too hard.
I've started adding some extra checks to my own local copy of lintian
- I had several bugs in my packages caused by missing Build-Depends,
not least because it can be easy to get them wrong or to miss
packages.
I've now got local checks for
xmkmf -> xutils
xlibs -> xlibs-dev
libxaw7 -> libxaw-dev
Shaleh seems unconvinced about adding these to lintian, which I can
understand - the maintenance of such a thing would be a nightmare. I'd
like to see an option for the -dev packages to add their own lintian
checks to cope with exactly this kind of thing - what do other people
think?
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. stevem@chiark.greenend.org.uk
Getting a SCSI chain working is perfectly simple if you remember that there
must be exactly three terminations: one on one end of the cable, one on the
far end, and the goat, terminated over the SCSI chain with a silver-handled
knife whilst burning *black* candles. --- Anthony DeBoer
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