(un)patching patched files
Dear Mentors,
For a package [1], I have to patch one file (Makefile.am) twice: once
from debian/patches, and the other times from debian/rules. The patch in
debian/patches is needed to bring allow the use of a standard automake
(upstream uses a patched version), while the patch done from
debian/rules contains a rename of all libraries built. It is done in the
following way:
------------------------8<-------------------------------------
override_dh_autoreconf:
sed s/libast/libstarlink_ast/g -i Makefile.am
AUTOMAKE="automake --foreign" dh_autoreconf
override_dh_clean:
sed s/libstarlink_ast/libast/g -i Makefile.am
dh_clean
------------------------8<-------------------------------------
The problem is now, that debuild finally calls "dpkg-source
--after-build", which undoes debian/patches before (or without) calling
dh_clean. Since debian/patches works with the original names (libast),
undoing the patches fails.
What is the proper solution to deal with this? Converting the patching
from debian/rules to a debian/patches patch is not a good solution,
since the library names are heavily used in the whole Makefile.am, and
the resulting patch would be huge, complicated (understanding the lines
in debian/rules is much easier) and fill fail on each small change.
Best regards
Ole
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