[PROPOSAL] changing policy on compiling with -g .. a better way

[Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>]

As a buildd admin, I want to congratulate the original policy on all the wasted
cpu cycles it has cost my system by forcing packages to compile with -g even
though those same binaries will be stripped later of this costly debugging
information.

Now, what I want to propose, is not a change so much as an ammendment. Keep the
policy there (which is meant to make it easier to build binaries and libraries
with debugging information), but add an ammendment for this situation:

--------
The package can by default build without -g if it also provides a mechanism
to easily be rebuilt with debugging information. This can be done by providing
a "build-debug" make target, or allowing the user to specify "BUILD_DEBUG=yes"
in the environment while compiling that package.
--------

Now this has several added benefits:

1) It is actually easier to build debugging bins and libraries this way (no more
   editing debian/rules or similar) since it provides a documented way of getting
   this type of build.
2) There will be much less wasted cpu time for the autobuilders since not having
   debugging information (and hence also not having to strip it) will increase
   the speed of compiles. This skips an entire pass of the compiler, iirc


Please, I would simply like to get a second on this and have it voted on or
whatever it is that we do with policy proposals now-a-days. Then added to policy.
I don't want to argue over the ten million technical points, and considering this
is very unobtrusive, and allows the maintainer to choose (not force) whether or
not to abide by it, it shouldn't provide much flame material, nor extensive
discussion about the pro's and con's.

Thanks,
  Ben