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Re: debmake and dh-make



Ian Zimmerman wrote:
> What is the story behind these 2 packages?

It is really more debmake and debhelper than debmake and dh-make.

[ dh-make is just a tool to ease the creation of debhelper-based
  debian/* files, but you can also use debhelper without dh-make ].

> Which one was first,

debmake was first, it started on late 1996. Then it was debhelper, which
started one year later.

> what was the rationale for creating the other,

debmake has a single binary, debstd, which tries to do everything.

debhelper has a lot of dh_* scripts, each one does a different thing
so you can use five, ten, or all of them in your debian/rules, according
to your particular needs. This makes it more modular and flexible.
There are also some design differences.

> and why do we still have both?

Like everything in Debian, a package exists as long as somebody is
willing to maintain it.



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