libtool patch -- was Re: easy way to tell if "in" package build?

[othman@cs.wustl.edu]

Hi Marcus,

On 19 Oct, Marcus Brinkmann wrote:
 > On Mon, Oct 18, 1999 at 11:59:49AM -0500, othman@cs.wustl.edu wrote: 
 > > Can someone suggest a way to tell if we are in the middle of a Debian
 > > package build?
 > 
 > There is no way to do so,

The way I check if we are in the middle of a Debian build is really
hackish but it should work for the most part.  Here is the changelog
entry from my libtool "-3" package:

libtool (1.3.3-3) unstable; urgency=low
  * Changed the rpath hack to check if debuild is currently running and if
    DEB_BUILD_ARCH variable is of non-zero length.  If both conditions are
    satisfied, it should be safe to assume that libtool is being used in
    the middle of a Debian package build.

    This change allows Debian's libtool to retain the same behavior as the
    upstream libtool, and at the same time enforce Debian's policy of not
    encoding library paths into binaries.  Specifically, libtool will
    encode library paths into binaries only if a Debian package isn't
    being built.

 -- Ossama Othman <ossama@debian.org>  Tue, 19 Oct 1999 14:43:47 -0500


The current "-2" package shouldn't be used since "-3" retains upstream
libtool behavior, whereas "-2" doesn't.

 > and any derivation from the upstream behaviour in
 > libtool is evil.

I assume you mean "deviation," right?  ;-)
Right, I completely agree.  My latest patch attempts to enforce Debian
policy when building a Debian package, and still retain upstream
libtool behavior when not building one.

 > Please do not use such a patch in the Debian package (it
 > would only make me to use the upstream libtool).

If I can retain the same behavior as the upstream libtool and still
enforce Debian policy for library paths in Debian package binaries why
would you use the upstream libtool?  In fact, the libtool packages
(1.3.3-3) I just uploaded do just that.  Library path encoding is only
shut off during a Debian package build (at least that what's supposed
to happen :).  All other times, libtool behavior is unmodified.

You have to patch libtool when building Debian packages that use libtool
to conform to Debian policy so I don't see why my patch is an issue,
especially since non-Debian package build libtool behavior is completely
unchanged from the upstream.

Incidentally, the patch was motivated by bug #46766.

If someone can up with a better solution than what I currently have
then I'd greatly appreciate it.

-Ossama
-- 
Ossama Othman <othman@cs.wustl.edu>
Center for Distributed Object Computing, Washington University, St. Louis
58 60 1A E8 7A 66 F4 44  74 9F 3C D4 EF BF 35 88  1024/8A04D15D 1998/08/26