Bug#369268: [Build-common-hackers] debhelper.mk: installs common docs instead of docs listed in package.docs

[Micha Lenk]

Hello,

Peter Eisentraut wrote:
>> Does cdbs do something wrong or not? I say, yes it's doing things
>> wrong: cdbs should install files listed in <package>.docs in
>> preference over the files specified on command line to
>> dh_installdocs.
> 
> Again, this is not the doing of cdbs.  cdbs calls debhelper.  Debhelper 
> decides what to install.  If you think that files should take
> precedence over the command line, you'll have to talk to the debhelper 
> maintainer.  It's completely pointless to complain here because we are 
> not controlling that.

Actually I don't care whether dh_installdocs takes files in .docs files 
precedence over files specified on command line (at least for this bug 
report) or not. What I do care here is what cdbs is doing for packaging 
the documentation.

I as packager selected a specific README to be packaged in 
<specialpackage> and specified it in the corresponding file 
<specialpackage>.docs, since I were expecting cdbs is using 
dh_installdocs (which it does). But my decision which README is to be 
installed in <specialpackage> has been overruled without any comment by 
cdbs (why ever). I had to read the code of debhelper.mk in order to 
understand why the hell the *specific* README from <specialpackage>.docs 
has been ignored by cdbs. That's odd, isn't it?

The difference compared to dh_installdocs is, that I didn't configure 
cdbs (on my own) to install any docs. Neither in config files like the 
.docs files nor on command line (okay, pointless in debian/rules). I 
just created the <package>.docs files because I trusted cdbs to make 
proper use of dh_installdocs. Thus I did expect it to do the same like I 
did without cdbs calling dh_installdocs in debian/rules on my own.

Or shouldn't I have expected this? If I expected something wrong from 
cdbs - then maybe I'll think it all over. But then, where is this 
difference between dh_installdocs called from within cdbs compared to 
dh_installdocs called from pure debian/rules documented? Did I miss 
something?

>> Not having talked about the reasons for this bug: Do you at least
>> agree with this being a bug?
> 
> Every tool known to man has the command line overriding settings in 
> files.  Debhelper does just that, so it's fine by me.  But I'm not the 
> debhelper maintainer, so I don't care.

I totally agree that it's fine for dh_installdocs having command line 
override settings in files. But that's not at all the bug of cdbs I'm 
talking about here.

Yours
   Micha