Bug#88029: allow rules file to be non-makefile

[Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>]

Chris Lawrence wrote:
> I tend to agree with Shaleh.  Nothing really to stop debian/rules from
> having lots of calls to a non-makefile though... (debstd *cough* ;-)
> 
> I can't think of any case offhand when a makefile *wouldn't* work as
> debian/rules.  Even if it does pass the buck totally onto something
> that is Build-Depended upon... besides, isn't there some way to specify:
> 
> #!/usr/bin/make -f
> 
> ARBITRARY_TARGET:
>         some_script $@
> 
> where ARBITRARY_TARGET is some mysterious % pattern that GNU make uses?
> 
> voila... your debian/rules is policy compliant.

#!/usr/bin/make -f
# Look, ma, I'm policy compliant!
%:
        tail -5 debian/rules | perl - $@
ifeq (foo,bar)
sub endif {}
for (1..10) {
       print "hello, world: $ARGV[0]\n";
}
endif

The lesson might be that trying to legislate good taste will never work. :-)

-- 
see shy jo