Bug#458164: Lintian should not suggest the Makefile test for packages that use a static Makefile

[Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>]

Andrea Colangelo <warp10@libero.it> writes:

> Package: lintian
> Version: 1.23.41
> Severity: wishlist
>
> Running lintian on a .dsc built from a package that has a static
> Makefile (i.e: doesn't use Autoconf or .configure) shows the following
> warning:
> "<foo> source: debian-rules-ignores-make-clean-error"

Only if you ignore the exit status of make distclean....

> The -i option shows a deeper description of the problem and suggest to
> change lines like this:
>  -$(MAKE) distclean
> into:
>  [ ! -f Makefile ] || $(MAKE) distclean
>
> This is not really required, given that for a static Makefile the test
> is always false and make distclean is never actually exercised.

I think you're reading the test backwards.  In that case, make distclean
would always be run.

If the package has a static Makefile, why would make distclean ever fail?
What problem are you solving by ignoring the exit status from it?
Normally, the solution would be to just remove the - in front of that
line.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>