Soren Stoutner:
Andrea,
On Tuesday, August 13, 2024 12:33:57 AM MST Andrea Pappacoda wrote:
[...]
That's a false positive. Rules-Requires-Root: no is already implied by the
build dependency on dpkg-build-api (= 1). Please see dpkg-build-api(7) and
bug #1057176. I also think that adding a lintian override is wrong since
this
should really be fixed lintian-side.
Even so, it is considered good practice in Debian to explicitly state "Rules-
Requires-Root: no” in the control file, and there are no downsides to doing so.
It shows that the developer has explicitly considered the need for root during
building time and is confident it isn’t needed. Setting "dpkg-build-api (= 1)"
might or might not indicate the maintainer has specifically considered whether
root is needed during build time. It ought to indicate that, but it could
also indicate the developer specified that for other reasons without being
fully aware of all the implications.
Drive by remark: I agree with Andrea and disagree with Soren on this.
The "dpkg-build-api (= 1)" makes `Rules-Requires-Root: no` the default.
Lintian should fix its false positives rather than people teaching each
other to "work around" lintian. I also do not want people to add
`Rules-Requires-Root` for packages that does not need `debian/rules`
(see #1077936). So I feel very strongly about not just sprinkling magic
fairy dust into the `debian/control` to work around `lintian` not having
a proper definition of whether a package needs `fakeroot`.
Best regards,
Niels
