Bug#397939: clean rule behavior underspecified and inconsistent with common practice
On Tue, 11 Sep 2012, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Bernhard R. Link wrote:
> > * Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> [120911 05:45]:
> >> The requirements in policy for
> >> "debian/rules clean" are very stringent --- to avoid the
> >> "unrepresentable changes" it would be enough to _remove_ the modified
> >> (regenerated) files, but policy requires undoing everything the build
> >> target did, or in other words restoring the original files.
> [...]
> > It does not do it must undo "everything". Undoing everything would be
> > impossible (like, how do you revert the timestamps of directories that
> > got a newer timestamp because there was a file created and then removed
> > in there?).
> >
> > Policy only speaks about the "effects" those targets had.
> >
> > And I think common understanding of this was (at least was in the past)
> > that removing files not needed for the build is a simple and effective
> > way to undo those effects, as it results in a working dir aquivalent
> > for all practical purposes to one where build and binary never ran.
>
> I'm happy to hear that, though I don't see how the wording in policy
> can support it. Perhaps a simple footnote that mentions that adding
> or modifying files is not allowed but removing them is allowed would
> take care of that distraction, then?
Yes, but as soon as you try that, you will get a bunch of people who
considers that Debian source package trees must at all times work as if it
were an upstream package tree (i.e. not depend on debian/rules targets to
work) to voice in the thread against any non-reversible changes during
build, and the thread will rapidly either die, or degenerate into
dead-horse-beating noise.
Nowadays we could actually do it, in a faint hope that the thread will
actually come to a rough consensus of some sort, and if it doesn't, punt it
to the ctte. But this is *really* not worth the hassle IMO.
Still, if any of you would like to do it, please wait a bit. Let's release
Wheezy first.
--
"One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
Henrique Holschuh
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