Re: Environment variables, debian/rules and dpkg-buildpackage
Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> writes:
> You're not trying very hard to look from both sides: whether the default
> value comes from the environment or from an included Makefile, in both
> cases the user can override it with command-line arguments.
>
> Granted it means that dpkg-buildpackage would have to pass
> user-overriden flags on the command line instead of using the
> environment, but that can be done if people really want this
> possibility.
I think it's clearly mandatory to implement a hierarchy of settings:
* Debian defaults
* Local distribution overrides
* Local package overrides
* User settings
where each overrides the previous ones.
Personally, I'd rather see this done via an included make fragment. I
think the logic in debian/rules is simpler in that case, and I don't agree
with the argument that it's that much harder to implement than relying on
environment variables. In practice, huge numbers of Debian packages
already unconditionally set CFLAGS in debian/rules and hence override any
environment variable settings. All those packages are going to have to be
modified anyway. I don't see a way of meaningfully deploying this change
without modifying most of the archive.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
Reply to: