Re: The Helper Rant
On Fri, Oct 12, 2001 at 06:43:08PM +0200, Gergely Nagy wrote:
> Another common problem is when people modify the upstream Makefile,
> even when it's unnecessary. For example, I've seen packages which add
> this line to the Makefile:
>
> DESTDIR=
>
> That just doesn't make sense. Another typical crap is this:
>
> -FOODIR=/usr/lib/bar
> +FOODIR=${DESTDIR}/usr/lib/bar
>
> Spend two lines of diff, plus context, plus header, just to change one
> tiny thing, which could be set from debian/rules, on the make command
> line.
I think this has something to do with the New maintainers' guide. The
document, which I wrote, recommends fixing upstream build system if it's
broken, and sending the patch upstream. I don't actually know anymore why
the DESTDIR is declared blank at the top, probably for being extra-obvious.
The new maintainers' packages that you as an application manager look at are
most often at their first revision, so it's quite likely that these patches
are in the Debian diff because the upstream maintainers probably haven't had
enough time to get, examine and include the patch and release a new version.
--
2. That which causes joy or happiness.
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