Bug#218893: Proposal: debian/rules.version file [Fix for the build-arch problem]
On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 12:32:47AM +0100, Bill Allombert wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 12:10:19AM +0100, Josip Rodin wrote:
> > What mandatory conversion to the new format in the long run?
>
> As I see it: currently there is version 0 and 1. Suppose one
> day version 2 is added. Requirement for version 2 will include
> requirement for version 1. If you want to implement version 2,
> you will have to implement version 1 even if it is not useful,
> say for a Arch: all source package.
>
> However, if you don't need version 2, you can stay to version 0.
>
> As a parallel, some of my packages are still using DH_COMPAT=1
> debhelper interface, and no one is complaining.
Although I keep seeing inexperienced developers converting packages to
debhelper version 4 in NMUs. :-/ It's newer and shinier, so it must be
better, right? (And I wonder how many versioned build-deps on debhelper
go missing in the process, how many duplicate conffiles get created by
incautious moves to DH_COMPAT >= 3, and so on ... there's a reason we
discourage cosmetic changes in NMUs.)
If we're adding optional features, doing so in a way that doesn't
confuse people into believing that all packages need to use them would
definitely be a good thing, I think.
Cheers,
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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