Your message dated Sun, 9 Sep 2012 11:28:12 +1000 with message-id <201209091128.13220.only...@member.fsf.org> and subject line Done: ITP: optional-dev -- fake (empty) dev package has caused the Debian Bug report #687001, regarding ITP: optional-dev -- fake (empty) dev package to be marked as done.
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--- Begin Message ---Package: wnpp Severity: wishlist X-Debbugs-CC: debian-de...@lists.debian.org Package name: optional-dev Version: 20120908 Author: Dmitry Smirnov <only...@member.fsf.org> License: GPL-3+ Description: fake (empty) dev package Purpose of this package is to provide an alternative for optional build dependencies which may not be available on some architectures. ######## There are situations when some of the libraries listed in Build-Depends are optional i.e. build system is smart enough to avoid failure when such library is missing. Often some development libraries are not available on all architectures in which case maintainer should know beforehand which architectures may satisfy this dependency and maintain an up-to-date list of architectures for such packages, like in the following example: Build-Depends: libchamplain-gtk-0.12-dev [!m68k !sh4], libopenipmi-dev [!hurd-any !arm] From time to time such lists should be re-checked in case library become available on another architecture or when new architecture is added or if package is removed from some architectures. Another challenge is backporting package if some of its optional build dependencies may not be available on target distribution. For instance "libchamplain-gtk-0.12-dev" is not available for Squeeze so backporting would require removing it from Build-Depends. Finally maintainer might want to mark optional dependencies as such (can be done with comments). All the above problems may be addressed by using this package as alternative to optional build dependency like in the example below: Build-Depends: libchamplain-gtk-0.12-dev | optional-dev, libopenipmi-dev | optional-dev
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--- Begin Message ---Closing as not feasible. Thanks to all those who provided a valuable feedback. Regards, Dmitry.
optional-dev_20120908.tar.gz
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optional-dev_20120908.dsc
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