Bug#836330: package build failure: "No rule to make target"

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 4:09 PM, gregor herrmann <gregoa@debian.org> wrote:

On Mon, 02 Jan 2017 15:28:10 -0500, Robert J. Clay wrote:

> There is an ITP [1] I've been working on, wherein Debian package build
> attempts just result in an error lke the following:
>
> make[1]: *** No rule to make target
> '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.20/Config.pm', needed by 'Makefile'.
> Stop.

Stray Makefile in the tarball?

(Downloading the tarball says "yes, there is a Makefile".)

Yes, indeed! (don't know how I missed it...)

> It comes up when attempting to use 'gbp buildpackage' or 'debuild' [2],
> under stretch, sid, or jessie. It does not come up when doing a normal
> Perl module build ('perl Makefile.PL && make test', for instance).

The former two call `debian/rules clean' which calls `make clean' as
there is a Makefile, which fails as it was created by `perl
Makefile.PL' on the authors machince with perl 5.20 installed.

In the latter case, your `perl Makefile.PL' rewrites the Makefile.

> It also
> does not come up attempting a Debian test build of another ITP I have.
> (Can't finish that one because it's dependent on this one...)

Luckily, these failures in `make dist' on the upstream side are quite
rare :)

Not sure what the quickest workaround is: Either putting Makefile in
debian/clean

Tried that but it didn't seem to work. Think it's seeing that existing Makefile too soon

or re-running `perl Makefile.PL' in
override_dh_auto_clean if the Makefile is around [0] or repacking the
tarball.

Of course asking upstream to release a fixed tarball what benefit
everyone :)

I've already contacted upstream about it, so I'll see what they say.

libamazon-sqs-simple-perl/debian/rules does the
override_dh_auto_clean dance with a comment:

I'll take a look at how that works...

Robert J. Clay
rjclay@gmail.com