[Build-common-hackers] Bug#521872: Bug#521872: Bug#521872: makefile-vars.mk clobbers LDFLAGS and others

[Peter Eisentraut]

On Tuesday 31 March 2009 00:10:24 Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> Non-automake makefiles can off course do whatever they like, but a
> makefile allowing the user to change LDFLAGS but breaking when done is
> mildly broken IMO.

I agree in principle, but then again, I would have guessed that many makefiles 
are broken in that way.  On the other hand, the disputed part of makefile-
vars.mk has been around for years, except that LDFLAGS has been added later.  
And the problem reports have been nil so far.  And building a fix based on one 
problem report now is quite unsafe.

I propose that for the moment, the upstream makefile be patched (replace 
LDFLAGS := by override LDFLAGS +=), and we monitor the issue closely and 
devise a built-in solution when we get more trouble reports.

> With your proposed change, how would a package suppress an unwanted
> upstream LDFLAGS setting?

That is part of the problem.  I would certainly prefer to keep LDFLAGS and 
CFLAGS handling the same, and we are by policy bound to override CFLAGS to -O2 
or something depending on DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS.