Re: how to build a package conditionally?

[idalton@ferret.phonewave.net]

On Mon, Mar 05, 2001 at 01:28:51AM -0500, Steve M. Robbins wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm maintaining a package (geomview) whose source is free, but parts
> of it require a non-free library (xforms) to compile.  Currently, the
> debian source package builds a single package that omits the programs
> that require xforms.  There is a wishlist bug requesting that a second
> package be created containing the extra bits.  That seems like a
> reasonable request.  How do I do it?
> 
> The current geomview package is in "main", because it is DFSG free.
> The second package, however, would need to be in "contrib", since it
> uses the non-free "xforms" package.  To me, the main problem is that I
> don't want to build the second ("geomview-contrib") package
> unconditionally, because of the autobuilders.  I'd like to have the
> default behaviour of running "dpkg-buildpackage" to be that only the
> main geomview package is built.  But one should be able to trigger a
> build of both the main and the contrib packages.
> 
> Is there a recommended way to achieve this?

Actually.. fltk is supposed to be an xforms replacement. If geomview
could build against that, you wouldn't have to bother with contrib.

-- Ferret
Who has no idea if fltk is 100% xforms-compatible.