On Sat, Aug 13, 2005 at 01:13:11PM +0200, Armin Berres wrote: > Steve Langasek wrote: > > On Fri, Aug 12, 2005 at 10:15:41AM +0200, Bas Wijnen wrote: > > If you rerun autoconf/automake/libtool at package build-time, when you don't > > need to, what you get are large diffs against upstream every time a new > > version of the autotools becomes available. Aside from wasting (a little) > > space in the archive, that makes it harder for NMUers or passing developers > > to see what's going on in your package. > > The autotools-dev README.Debian is a good guide to these issues. > >From autotools-dev Readme.Debian: > "You have two good choices, and one bad choice for packaging upstream > source which uses automake and autoconf and contains generated files: > 1. Tolerate the big diff size, and run the autotools stuff before you > create the debian source package. This is what I usually do. > 2. Patch the autotools files (*.in, *.am) at build time, make sure all > the build dependencies are 100% correct (hint: conflicting with > autoconf2.13 is *always* a good idea if you're not using autoconf 2.13 > and automake 1.4). This means that the autobuilders will have to rerun > the entire thing, and so will the users, etc. > When you're doing a full dpatch-based packaging, this choice makes > sense. > 3. Live with whatever crap upstream used. You do *not* have this choice > if libtool is being used, BTW. And it is a bad choice IMHO, I'm yet to > see any distribution with better autoconf, automake, libtool and gettext > packages than Debian (and I do have a lot of experience on this)." > Most people proposed to use the 3. choice so far. According to above > document this is not a very good solution. Apparently. Ohwell, I'll defer to the autotools-dev maintainer, then, though I do stand by my comments about big diffs making it hard for third parties to know what's going on. I think Joey Hess's recommendation is the best of all, here. Though fwiw, build-conflicting with autoconf2.13 seems like overkill when one can just use AC_PREREQ([2.50]) in the configure.in. -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. vorlon@debian.org http://www.debian.org/
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