Bug#399754: FTBFS: Can not require network during build

[Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>]

[Goswin Brederlow]
> A package MUST not require resources outside of the buildd. How
> could the security team release a new version if the external
> resources are dead? How can a build be reproduced if the external
> resource changes contents?

This package is intended to reflect the package content of the APT
sources at the time of the build, and thus should _not_ stat the same
when the external resources change content.  It is a meta-package
depending on the package available in the Debian archive at the time
it is built.  The "source" in this case is the list of wanted packages
for the implemented package profiles, and the binary packages
represent the available packages at the time of the build.

In short, this package _should_ require resources outside the buildd,
and every time it is rebuilt _should_ change to reflect the external
sources.

> when building debian-edu I get
> 
> make[1]: Entering directory `/home/formorer/build/debian-edu_0.812/debian-edu-0.812'
> ./gen-control -s ./sources.list.terra -t > debian-edu-tasks.desc.new && mv debian-edu-tasks.desc.new debian-edu-tasks.desc
> Err http://ftp.skolelinux.org etch Release.gpg
>   Could not connect to ftp.skolelinux.org:80 (158.36.191.142), connection timed out

The ftp.skolelinux.org ftp server is still working as it used to.  I
guess you either have a special network configuration, or there is
something else strange going on.

I guess we could make the build check if the apt sources is available
before trying to fetch data from the, and allow the build to be a
no-op if no network is available (just passing on the previous list of
packages).  Not sure if it is worth the effort, though.

Friendly,
-- 
Petter Reinholdtsen