[Build-common-hackers] Re: ITP: dev-common -- cvs/svn snapshot package building aid

[Colin Walters]

On Tue, 2003-07-29 at 13:18, Mark Howard wrote:
> Note: This is not for inclusion in the main Debian repository, nor are
> any dev-gnome packages. This is not being sent to the bts.
> 
> * Package name    : dev-common
>   Upstream Author : Mark Howard <mh@debian.org> (and others?)
> * License         : GPL
>   Description     : cvs/svn snapshot package building aid
> 
>  An abstract build system based on Makefile inheritance, inspired by
>  cdbs, with as much automation as possible. 

Do we really need two build systems like this?  Can't you merge with
cdbs?  I would be very happy to work with you on this.

>  The reason for building this package is to make it possible to easily
>  create a large number of cvs snapshot packages, hopefully all of gnome.
>  Garnome is just too slow to set up for my liking :)

That's reasonable.

>  Features:
>    * source packages consist of cvs/svn checkout and a debian directory
>          containing a rules file, possibly with only a single line to
>          include the dev-common makefile.
>    * Update target determines upstrem repository details from e.g. CVS
>          directory,  updates the source and creates a new upstream tarball
>    * configure/build targets determine requirements from source and
>          pulls in the appropriate cdbs rules.

This sounds ok, but why not just make it a regular cdbs rule file?  I
don't see the need for another whole separate package.  We could call it
/usr/share/cdbs/1/rules/autosnapshot.mk or something.

>    * control file generator generates a control file from source files.

Yeah, we need this in cdbs too.