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Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.7.2.2
Currently, we have:
4.9 Main building script: debian/rules
This file must be an executable makefile, and contains the
package-specific recipes for compiling the package and building
binary package(s) from the source.
It must start with the line #!/usr/bin/make -f, so that it can be
invoked by saying its name rather than invoking make explicitly.
There is no technical reason why this has to be a makefile. I propose:
4.9 Main building script: debian/rules
This file is normally an executable makefile, and contains the
package-specific recipes for compiling the package and building
binary package(s) from the source.
debian/rules must be an executable script with an appropriate #!
line (so, if it is a makefile it must start with the line
#!/usr/bin/make -f) so that it can be invoked by saying its name.
It should use a widely-used language, and should restrict itself to
features portable even to older versions of its interpreter.
Ian.
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On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:52:22 -0800, Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> said:
> Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> writes:
>> I am convinced that this bug report is of dubious value, and if Russ
>> agrees, I am going to just mark this report as closed, or as wontfix.
> Yup, I tagged this one dubious myself a while back. I agree with
> closing it. I know that not everyone agrees with the requirement, but
> given that it's been in policy from 2001, I think we need a clear
> consensus to change it, and I haven't gotten the impression that such
> a consensus exists.
At this point, I would like to also add:
a) This has been a MUST requirement in policy for over 6 years now.
b) This is overwhelmingly current practice; all but a score or so
source packages use Make.
c) There is no clear technical problem that this rule causes in
implementing whatever build procedure packages need
d) While using Make is not perfect; it is a well understood interface,
and having policy continue to standardize on Make allows people to
depend on having a Makefile as the rules, and perhaps build
scaffolding around that. Much work still needs to be done in this
area to make this reliable
I strongly suggest we try to set up a transition plan for making
build-arch/build-indep as mandatory, rather than optional, targets.
manoj
--
You are in a maze of UUCP connections, all alike.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
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