On Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 10:54 AM, Sean Whitton wrote: > I should be clear that what I had in mind was the question of *actually > regenerating* the files during the build process, not just the question > of including them in the source package with a promise that the > regeneration will actually work -- which is of course required. There > are diverging opinions about running autoconf during the package build > or not.
Thanks for the clarification. The ftp-master policy on this is that it must be *possible* to build all generated files in Debian main from source using only packages in Debian main, but *not* that it actually be done during the normal build process. Personally I feel that the only way to know if it was and still is possible is to *actually* build from source during every single build, including binNMUs and QA rebuilds. This way we find problems in our toolchains earlier and can fix them. This also gives our users confidence that they have the practical ability to modify all of Debian and rebuild from source should the need arise. That practical ability is also needed for various parts of Debian itself, including new ports, security updates and so on. -- bye, pabs https://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise
