On Thu, 29 Mar 2012, Wookey wrote: > > But you should not rely on this because calling debian/rules directly > > must be supported. > > Hmm, but if a package cannot use the variables set by > dpkg-buildpackage and must set them itself, what is the point of > dpkg-buildpackage setting them? To save the package exporting the > variables?
I see two main reasons (but I did not write the original code, so I don't know the initial motivation): 1/ this allows debian/rules to use "?=" assignation resulting in no-op when the variables are set. This avoids multiple dpkg-architecture invocations since dpkg-buildpackage only calls it once. 2/ it is required for cross-compilation since the fact that DEB_HOST_ARCH is set to a value that is not equal to DEB_BUILD_ARCH is the canonical fact that defines cross-compilation of the debian package > Well, perhaps I shouldn't (and indeed I'd like us to get to a point > where we don't), but currently, in practice, non-native builds need > other things setting in the environment anyway so even using > dpkg-buildpackage isn't necessarily sufficient, whereas for a native > build it always is. OK but this should ideally be integrated in common layers such as CDBS and debhelper. > Now if everyone is happy that debian/rules remains the canonical > interface even for cross-builds and that they should work without > dpkg-buildpackage help then I should start testing on that basis. I > have not done that to date. Honestly I have never seen anyone doing cross-builds and calling debian/rules manually. So while I believe that cross-build should not make different assumptions from native builds (i.e. we want to converge), I would also not bother testing this explicitly. "dpkg-buildpackage -a" is what people are using (and should be using). Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer Pre-order a copy of the Debian Administrator's Handbook and help liberate it: http://debian-handbook.info/liberation/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20120330060656.gk12...@rivendell.home.ouaza.com
