Re: automake fun
"Steve M. Robbins" <steven.robbins@videotron.ca> writes:
> Well, normally that is not a problem either: if configure detects
> automake, and runs it, that usually works. If not, there is a bug
> in the package's auto-* input files (configure.in, Makefile.am,
> etc).
Upstream maintainers tend to have a lot of broken stuff in their
Makefile.am. And I've even encountered stuff that claims to have been
created with one subrevision of automake 1.4, but doesn't work with
the automake 1.4 (different subrevision) in woody (e.g. python-gnome).
> If the package files are buggy and don't work with, say automake1.5,
> then using build-conflicts seems the cleanest option, to me. Or fix
> the package.
Well, I personally dislike the Build-Conflicts solution, as it would
require updating all packages if a new automake package (say,
automake1.6) or something hit the archive. It just seems to
heavyweight for this.
But the reason I asked here is to get other opinions. I think having
a consistent solution to problems like this is important. If most
people agree that Build-Conflicts is the way to go, then we should
document this in /usr/share/doc/autotools-dev/README.Debian.gz, and
more maintainers will hopefully start using it.
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