On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 10:08:47AM +0200, Josselin Mouette wrote:
> As for automake, you should strongly recommend AM_MAINTAINER_MODE.
> Packages without this macro are a real pain to patch.
>
> If upstream wants maintainer mode by default (as you have without the
> macro set), they just need to set AM_MAINTAINER_MODE([enable]). By
> default, cdbs and dh will disable it and everyone is happy.
Uhm, no. AM_MAINTAINER_MODE is bad for:
* upstream -- it forces manual rebuilds
* non-distro users -- another issue to watch for while hacking on the
program. As long as they don't modify the autotoolage, they
don't need autotools installed -- and if they did, they do want
to be told what they need instead of their modifications being
silently ignored.
* Debian -- building things from the actual source is one of the core rules
The only "benefit" that AM_MAINTAINER_MODE can bring is cleaner deb diffs,
which can be obtained just as well by removing the modified generated files
in "debian/rules clean".
In fact, it would be nice to have a lintian check _against_ using that, and
forcing --disable-maintainer-mode to configure if it's present in the
upstream sources, since it being enabled means you're patching generated
files.
--
1KB // Microsoft corollary to Hanlon's razor:
// Never attribute to stupidity what can be
// adequately explained by malice.
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