[This mail is part of Debian Policy Weekly issue #5]
Topic 9: Non-interactive build process of packages
STATE: APPROVAL
Some packages require user-interaction during the build process, i.e., when
running a `dpkg-buildpackage' on the source. This makes it hard for someone
other than the usual maintainer to compile the package (for example, for
maintainers porting the package to other architectures) and makes
auto-compiling the package impossible.
The Packaging Manual already contains the following statement:
3.2.1 debian/rules - the main building script
[...]
The targets which are required to be present are:
build
This should perform all non-interactive configuration and compilation of
the
package. If a package has an interactive pre-build configuration routine,
the
Debianised source package should be built after this has taken place, so
that
it can be built without rerunning the configuration.
[...]
Current (unwritten) policy is to require that all other targets of
debian/rules are also non-interactive.
Unless someone objects, the text in the Packaging Manual will be fixed to
document this.
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