[buildd-tools-devel] non-free Packages as build-dependency of contrib / non-free ones & autobuilding

Goswin von Brederlow goswin-v-b at web.de
Wed Apr 21 08:04:55 UTC 2010


Andreas Barth <aba at not.so.argh.org> writes:

> Hi,
>
> currently our policy says that main packages must only (build-)depend
> on main packages, but contrib and non-free packages could use packages
> from contrib and non-free.
>
> In practice build-dependencies from non-free are not used by the
> buildds for two reasons:
>
> 1. (mostly historical) we need to make sure that the packages are not
> installed anymore while building packages from main - this can be
> ensured via the lvm-snapshot type chroots however
>
> 2. we don't know (on an automated basis) which packages in non-free
> can be used as build-dependency without violating copyright. For the
> source packages we use the marker "Autobuild: yes", but that won't do
> for binary packages where we only want to have some packages
> considered by apt/aptitude.
>
>
> Some obvious solutions come to my mind:
>
> 1. Split non-free into "non-free-but-useable", i.e. packages that can
> be autobuilt, and can be used as a build-dependency (and where main +
> contrib + non-free is self-contained, like main today already is), and
> "silly-non-free" (the remaining packages).
>
> 2. Make a sub-disttree from non-free of the acceptable packages, and
> put it somewhere only on ftp-master or a few hosts only (that's enough
> for installing build-dependencies on buildds already)
>
>
>
> Other ideas? Opinions?

Add "Autobuild: yes" to binary packages so the flag ends up in Packages
and then filter non-free for packages with the flag set. This can be
done in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ with

Apt::Update::Post-Invoke { "filter.sh" }

where filter.sh goes through /var/lib/apt/lists/*non-free*Packages and
removes anything without "Autobuild: yes".

Would it be save to carry the "Autobuild: yes" flag from the source
stanza into binary packages? That would involve a small change in dpkg
and then the next compile of each package would fix the debs for
autobuilding.

MfG
        Goswin



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