Hi everyone,

I intend to do a mass bug filing against all packages that use freetype-config 
and/or freetype.m4, 
as these APIs will be removed from libfreetype6-dev in the next maintainer 
release. This is a 
Debian-specific change.

Freetype-config has been considered deprecated for several years [1]. Although 
it is suitable 
for compiling for the native architecture (i.e. host = build), it cannot handle 
cross-compiling.
See, for example [1], [2] and [3].

Freetype-config also acts as a wrapper for pkg-config, if that package is 
installed. However, 
as explained in [2] and [3], this does not help with cross-compiling, because 
"pkg-config 
must be qualified with the GNU triplet of the package architecture" in order to 
output 
the correct library paths.

I asked for freetype-config to be removed in [4] to allow libfreetype6-dev to 
become 
Multi-Arch: same. Five months later, I compromised and patched freetype-config 
to 
remove the hard-coded libdir paths causing the multi-arch file conflict.

A separate change (build-depending on pkg-config) fixed [5], but caused 
additional 
bugs when libfreetype6-dev is installed for foreign architectures only (see [2] 
and [3]).
In these bugs, freetype-config was calling pkg-config for the native 
architecture.

Following discussions in [3] and further investigation, the decision was made 
to 
remove freetype-config and freetype.m4 to better support multi-arch usage.

With this in mind, I removed freetype-config and built all reverse 
build-dependencies. I have also searched codesearch.debian.net for use of 
AC_CHECK_FT2 in configure.ac and configure.in. (Thanks to Simon McVittie 
for the suggestion.)

A list of affected source packages is attached. 36 packages FTBFS without 
freetype-config. Another 25 compile, but warn that freetype was not detected.

26 of the 61 packages already use pkg-config to detect other libraries, 
so updating those packages to detect freetype2 using pkg-config is 
straightforward. 

The proposed wording for the bug reports reads:
--------
Dear Maintainer,

The next release of libfreetype6-dev will *not* ship freetype-config or 
or freetype2.m4. This is a Debian-specific change.

Please use pkg-config to detect the freetype2 headers and libraries.

If this bug is not resolved prior to the release of the next version of 
libfreetype6-dev, your package may FTBFS.

Thank you
--------

I realise removing freetype-config may not be popular. However, 
the long-term benefits will outweigh any short-term inconvenience.

--
Hugh McMaster

[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=642354
[2] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=871470
[3] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=886461
[4] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=870618
[5] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=885324
List of packages affected by the removal of freetype-config:

D Haley <my...@gmx.com>
   3depict (U)

Debian Science Maintainers <debian-science-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   3depict

Barry deFreese <bdefre...@debian.org>
   adonthell (U)

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   adonthell

Robert Luberda <rob...@debian.org>
   afterstep

Barry deFreese <bdefre...@debian.org>
   asc (U)

Bartosz Fenski <fe...@debian.org>
   asc (U)

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   asc

Markus Koschany <a...@debian.org>
   asc (U)

Sam Hocevar <s...@debian.org>
   asc (U)

Barry deFreese <bddeb...@comcast.net>
   brutalchess (U)

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   brutalchess

Vincent Legout <vleg...@debian.org>
   brutalchess (U)

Debian OCaml Maintainers <debian-ocaml-ma...@lists.debian.org>
   camlimages

Mehdi Dogguy <me...@debian.org>
   camlimages (U)

Ralf Treinen <trei...@debian.org>
   camlimages (U)

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   cube2font

Martin Erik Werner <martinerikwer...@gmail.com>
   cube2font (U)

Debian QA Group <packa...@qa.debian.org>
   dia

Marc Leeman <marc.lee...@gmail.com>
   dvdauthor

OHURA Makoto <oh...@debian.org>
   dvi2ps

Varun Hiremath <va...@debian.org>
   dvipng

Barry deFreese <bdefre...@debian.org>
   fenix-plugins (U)

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   fenix-plugins

Miriam Ruiz <little_m...@yahoo.es>
   fenix-plugins (U)

Peter Pentchev <r...@ringlet.net>
   fenix-plugins (U)

Michele Martone <michelemart...@users.sourceforge.net>
   fim

Rafael Laboissiere <raf...@debian.org>
   fim (U)

Aaron M. Ucko <u...@debian.org>
   fltk1.1

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   foobillardplus

Markus Koschany <a...@debian.org>
   foobillardplus (U)

Sam Hocevar <s...@debian.org>
   ftgl

Jaimos Skriletz <jaimosskril...@gmail.com>
   fvwm

Giacomo Catenazzi <c...@debian.org>
   g15composer

Ari Pollak <a...@debian.org>
   gimp

Jordi Mallach <jo...@debian.org>
   gimp (U)

Debian GNUstep maintainers <pkg-gnustep-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   gnustep-back

Eric Heintzmann <heintzmann.e...@free.fr>
   gnustep-back (U)

Gürkan Myczko <gur...@phys.ethz.ch>
   gnustep-back (U)

Yavor Doganov <ya...@gnu.org>
   gnustep-back (U)

Laszlo Boszormenyi (GCS) <g...@debian.org>
   graphicsmagick

Colin Watson <cjwat...@debian.org>
   grub2 (U)

Felix Zielcke <fziel...@z-51.de>
   grub2 (U)

GRUB Maintainers <pkg-grub-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   grub2

Ian Campbell <i...@debian.org>
   grub2 (U)

Jordi Mallach <jo...@debian.org>
   grub2 (U)

Debian Multimedia Maintainers 
<pkg-multimedia-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   inkscape

Matteo F. Vescovi <m...@debian.org>
   inkscape (U)

Mattia Rizzolo <mat...@debian.org>
   inkscape (U)

Dominique Dumont <d...@debian.org>
   lcdproc

Giacomo Catenazzi <c...@debian.org>
   libg15render

Harshula Jayasuriya <harsh...@debian.org>
   libotf

Debian SDL packages maintainers <pkg-sdl-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   libsdl-sge

Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <m...@debian.org>
   libsdl-sge (U)

Debian SDL packages maintainers <pkg-sdl-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   libsdl2-ttf

Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <m...@debian.org>
   libsdl2-ttf (U)

Debian QA Group <packa...@qa.debian.org>
   libwmf

Debian freesmartphone.org Team <pkg-fso-ma...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   literki

Timo Jyrinki <t...@debian.org>
   literki (U)

Harshula Jayasuriya <harsh...@debian.org>
   m17n-lib

Bas Couwenberg <sebas...@debian.org>
   mapnik (U)

David Paleino <da...@debian.org>
   mapnik (U)

Debian GIS Project <pkg-grass-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   mapnik

Francesco Paolo Lovergine <fran...@debian.org>
   mapnik (U)

Jérémy Lal <kapo...@melix.org>
   mapnik (U)

Debian GNUstep maintainers <pkg-gnustep-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   mknfonts.tool

Yavor Doganov <ya...@gnu.org>
   mknfonts.tool (U)

Graham Inggs <gin...@debian.org>
   motif

Paul Gevers <elb...@debian.org>
   motif (U)

A Mennucc1 <mennu...@debian.org>
   mplayer (U)

Debian Multimedia Maintainers 
<pkg-multimedia-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   mplayer

Miguel A. Colón Vélez <debian.mic...@gmail.com>
   mplayer (U)

Reinhard Tartler <siret...@tauware.de>
   mplayer (U)

Aaron M. Ucko <u...@debian.org>
   ncbi-blast+ (U)

Andreas Tille <ti...@debian.org>
   ncbi-blast+ (U)

Debian Med Packaging Team <debian-med-packag...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   ncbi-blast+

Olivier Sallou <osal...@debian.org>
   ncbi-blast+ (U)

Bas Wijnen <wij...@debian.org>
   openmsx

Alberto Luaces Fernández <alua...@udc.es>
   openscenegraph (U)

Loic Dachary (OuoU) <l...@debian.org>
   openscenegraph

Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <m...@debian.org>
   openscenegraph (U)

Ola Lundqvist <o...@debian.org>
   openscenegraph (U)

Miriam Ruiz <mir...@debian.org>
   otf2bdf

Emfox Zhou <em...@debian.org>
   pcmanx-gtk2

Debian PHP Maintainers <pkg-php-ma...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   php7.0

Lior Kaplan <kap...@debian.org>
   php7.0 (U)

Ondřej Surý <ond...@debian.org>
   php7.0 (U)

Debian PHP Maintainers <pkg-php-ma...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   php7.1

Lior Kaplan <kap...@debian.org>
   php7.1 (U)

Ondřej Surý <ond...@debian.org>
   php7.1 (U)

A Mennucc1 <mennu...@debian.org>
   pygame (U)

Debian Python Modules Team <python-modules-t...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   pygame

Dominik George <n...@naturalnet.de>
   pygame (U)

Ed Boraas <e...@debian.org>
   pygame (U)

Vincent Cheng <vch...@debian.org>
   pygame (U)

Dirk Eddelbuettel <e...@debian.org>
   rgl

Ying-Chun Liu (PaulLiu) <paul...@debian.org>
   rlvm

Debian Science Team <debian-science-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   sagemath

Jerome Benoit <calcu...@rezozer.net>
   sagemath (U)

Julien Puydt <julien.pu...@laposte.net>
   sagemath (U)

Tobias Hansen <than...@debian.org>
   sagemath (U)

Ximin Luo <infini...@debian.org>
   sagemath (U)

Bruno "Fuddl" Kleinert <fu...@debian.org>
   scorched3d (U)

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   scorched3d

Phil Morrell <deb...@emorrp1.name>
   scorched3d (U)

Reinhard Tartler <siret...@tauware.de>
   scorched3d (U)

Stephen M. Webb <stephen.w...@bregmasoft.ca>
   scorched3d (U)

David Weinehall <t...@debian.org>
   scummvm (U)

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   scummvm

Dmitry Smirnov <only...@debian.org>
   scummvm (U)

Moritz Muehlenhoff <j...@debian.org>
   scummvm (U)

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   scummvm-tools

Stephen Kitt <sk...@debian.org>
   scummvm-tools (U)

Debian SDL packages maintainers <pkg-sdl-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   sdl-ttf2.0

Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <m...@debian.org>
   sdl-ttf2.0 (U)

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   teeworlds

Felix Geyer <fge...@debian.org>
   teeworlds (U)

Jack Coulter <jsci...@gmail.com>
   teeworlds (U)

Debian TeX Maintainers <debian-tex-ma...@lists.debian.org>
   texlive-bin

Norbert Preining <prein...@debian.org>
   texlive-bin (U)

Olly Betts <o...@survex.com>
   therion (U)

Wookey <woo...@debian.org>
   therion

Debian Fonts Task Force <pkg-fonts-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   ttfautohint (U)

Gürkan Myczko <gur...@phys.ethz.ch>
   ttfautohint

Debian Games Team <pkg-games-de...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   tuxpuck

Markus Koschany <a...@debian.org>
   tuxpuck (U)

Debian QA Group <packa...@qa.debian.org>
   tvtime

Youhei SASAKI <uwab...@gfd-dennou.org>
   xdvik-ja

Joachim Wiedorn <joodeb...@joonet.de>
   xfe

Daniel Leidert (dale) <daniel.leid...@wgdd.de>
   xmlroff (U)

Debian XML/SGML Group <debian-xml-sgml-p...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
   xmlroff

W. Martin Borgert <deba...@debian.org>
   xmlroff (U)

Steve McIntyre <93...@debian.org>
   xplanet

Ying-Chun Liu (PaulLiu) <paul...@debian.org>
   xsystem35

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