[Build-common-hackers] Bug#508162: Please document the "correct" order of rules and classes in debian/rules

[Fabian Greffrath]

Package: cdbs
Version: 0.4.52
Severity: minor

Dear CDBS-Hackers,

I'd like to know if there is a consensus (i.e. a rule-of-thumb) 
concerning the order in which the CDBS class and rules files have to 
be included in debian/rules? -- I am thinking about a statement like 
"include rules first, then classes"?

If there is such a consensus, what is the recommended order of e.g. 
rules files among each other in debian/rules? -- I am thinking about a 
statement like "do allways include debhelper.mk before patchsys-quilt.mk".

Please document the recommended order of the CDBS rules and class 
makefile fragments somewhere, e.g. in a README file!

My personal idea to deal with this issue is to enumerate the files in 
their respective directories, e.g. (I don't know if the order is 
right, it's just a draft example):
	/usr/share/cdbs/1/rules/01-buildcore.mk
	/usr/share/cdbs/1/rules/00-buildvars.mk
	/usr/share/cdbs/1/rules/10-debhelper.mk
	/usr/share/cdbs/1/rules/20-dpatch.mk
	/usr/share/cdbs/1/rules/20-simple-patchsys.mk
	/usr/share/cdbs/1/rules/30-tarball.mk
	/usr/share/cdbs/1/rules/30-utils.mk
respecting the order in which they are supposed to be included in 
debian/rules. To preserve backwards compatiblity, those enumerated 
files could be softlinked to the old file names.

The rationale for my request is that today I had to find out that I 
need to include patchsys.quilt.mk *after* autotools.mk if one of my 
patches affects to build system to run properly (e.g. to make 'make 
distclean' work again). This behaviour is documented nowhere -- at 
least I haven't found anything in the cdbs documentation.
	
Thank you very much!

Cheers,
Fabian

-- 
Dipl.-Phys. Fabian Greffrath

Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Lehrstuhl für Energieanlagen und Energieprozesstechnik (LEAT)
Universitätsstr. 150, IB 3/134
D-44780 Bochum

Telefon: +49 (0)234 / 32-26334
Fax:     +49 (0)234 / 32-14227
E-Mail:  greffrath at leat.ruhr-uni-bochum.de