[debhelper-devel] Bug#781370: Bug#781370: debhelper: Should allow for something like override_dh*-common in addition to -arch and -indep

[Niels Thykier]

Control: tags -1 moreinfo

On 2015-03-28 09:20, Robert Luberda wrote:
> Package: debhelper
> Version: 9.20150101
> Severity: wishlist
> 
> Hi,
> 
> It would be nice if debhlper could have override_*-common target
> for stuff that is needed by both override_*-arch and override_*-indep
> (or alternatively it could run override_* even if override_*-arch/indep
> exist).
> 
> A comment in /usr/bin/dh says that `mixing it [i.e.non-arch-specific
> override] with arch-specific overrides makes little sense', but in fact
> such a mix does have sense for at least two of my packages:
> 
>  - ispell that needs ./ispell binary, created by build-arch, in order to
>    generate arch-indep dictionary packages.
> 
>  - afterstep that generally puts the documentation it generates into
>    arch-indep afterstep-data, with an exception of a few files (with 
>    API documentation) that are installed in arch-dep libafterimage-dev.
> 
> Regards,
> robert
> 
> [...]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your suggestion.

However, I must admit I am not entirely convinced about the idea.  I
sort of see where you are coming from, but I do not see why this cannot
trivially be solved by the current interface and make target dependencies.

Part of my reason to be conservative is that if we change this, we also
have to think about the "order" in which things are run.  There are
almost certainly arguments for running "-common" before *AND* after the
regular "-indep/-arch" targets (though hopefully not both at the same
time).  We do not have this problem currently since "-indep" and "-arch"
are disjointed in their purpose.

Alternatively, are you asking for something like this?

 """
   if building arch-dep AND arch-indep, then
	make -f d/rules override_X-common
   elif builing arch-dep then
	make -f d/rules override_X-arch
   else
	make -f d/rules override_X-indep
 """

I.e. the "-common" target would replace -arch and -indep plus *only* be
run when building arch-dep and arch-indep at the same time?

~Niels