Package: debhelper
Severity: wishlist
Currently, you cannot provide a third-party build system and have it
"auto-load" like the built-in build systems. As a consequence, we do
not have as smooth integration as we do with dh addons. This makes it
temping to "abuse" a dh addon to force a particular build system (or
replace dh_auto_* with custom tools that are basically a build system).
Obviously, this is suboptimal.
Some things to consider from a solution:
* The solution should be de-centralized and support people adding a new
build system without having to register the build system inside
debhelper (as we do now).
* The solution would ideally support "dh_assistant
which-build-system", which would help lintian-brush.
- Or at least be declarative enough that lintian-brush/janitor can
tell which packages to install such that dh_assistant will provide
reliable results.
- TODO: Clarify with Jelmer what would work best for the janitor/
lintian-brush. Presumably it is not feasible for the lintian-brush
to install packages (but it might be for the janitor).
* The solution should be deterministic in its build system selection.
Furthermore, it should preferably not pick different build systems in
an unclean environment vs. a clean chroot (assuming well-behaved
implementations).
* If possible, the solution should ensure that build dependencies are
available or advise which build-dependencies are needed so that
lintian / lintian-brush can detect and fix missing build-
dependencies. The latter would also be useful for built-in build
systems like "meson+ninja".
- The advisement can be via dh_assistant or via declarative
means.
