Bug#391240: debian-policy: Please elaborate on cleaning up files outside the build dir
Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.7.2.1
Severity: normal
Tags: patch
Quoting Steve Langasek, from bug report #388399:
,----
| a package's clean target has to undo
| everything done by the build and binary targets, which is not possible if
| it's leaving cache files around on the system. (The fact that buildds don't
| actually call the clean target after calling the binary target is secondary,
| really; the point is that package builds shouldn't be writing to the user's
| home directory in the first place and *requiring* any cleanup, though I
| can't find any reference to this in the current version of policy.)
`----
"writing to the home directory" also includes creation of dotfiles,
which some programs do when used the first time (and they keep "copies"
of the site-wide conffiles there, which are not subject to conffile
updating). The problem with the TeX font cache has actually caused a
FTBFS bug, and I've documented it in the TeX policy draft (pending
upload). However, many packages create documentation without directly
using TeX, and therefore won't find the information in the TeX policy.
Therefore, I suggest the following patch to the Debian policy:
--- debian-policy-3.7.2.2/policy.sgml.orig 2006-10-05 18:52:02.000000000 +0200
+++ debian-policy-3.7.2.2/policy.sgml 2006-10-05 18:58:19.000000000 +0200
@@ -1882,7 +1882,15 @@
and <tt>binary</tt> targets may have had, except
that it should leave alone any output files created in
the parent directory by a run of a <tt>binary</tt>
- target.
+ target<footnote>
+ This includes files that are generated outside the
+ build directory, e.g. dotfiles in $HOME (if that
+ exists) or TeX font cache data. Note that TeX is
+ often called indirectly to create PDF or PS versions
+ of documentation. Hints for cleaning up the TeX font
+ cache are in the TeX policy draft in
+ the <package>tex-common</package> package.
+ </footnote>.
</p>
<p>
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (99, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17-2-686
Locale: LANG=de_DE@euro, LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro (charmap=ISO-8859-15)
-- no debconf information
--
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)
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