[Pkg-octave-devel] Build-dependencies for the octave-forge pkgs

[Rafael Laboissiere <rafael@debian.org>]

When adding quilt support to some octave-forge packages, the 
/usr/share/cdbs/1/rules/patchsys-quilt.mk file is included in debian/rules.
Then, Lintian complains with "source: missing-build-dependency cdbs".  Since
the octave-pkg-dev depends on cdbs, there is no need for the octave-forge
pkgs to build-depend on cdbs, in principle.  

I then filed a bug report against lintian asking to make an exception for
octave-pkg-dev (Bug#472705).  Joerg Jaspert replied telling me that this is
not the right thing to do and that the packages must build-depend on cdbs
anyway. I think his arguments are sensible and I closed the bug report.

This makes me think that the octave-forge packages should also depend on
debhelper.  Should we enforce this?

Another not-so-unrelated issue is the location of the files installed by
octve-pkg-dev.  The quilt package, for instance, install patchsys-quilt.mk
in /usr/share/cdbs.  I think that octave-pkg-dev.mk should also go there.
Likewise, since octave-pkg-dev.pl is actually a debhelper extension, it
should also be installed somewhere under /usr/share/debhelper.

Besides the aesthetics benefit of the above, it will help Lintian to detect
the lacking build-dependency on cdbs, in the case we enforce that for the
octave-forge pkgs.

Comments on the above are welcome.

-- 
Rafael