[debhelper-devel] Bug#858467: Bug#858467: Please expand on error message "No packages to build." when architectures do not match

[Michael Stapelberg]

On Mon, May 15, 2017 at 8:34 PM, Niels Thykier <niels at thykier.net> wrote:

> Michael Stapelberg:
> > On Mon, Apr 10, 2017 at 12:55 PM, Niels Thykier <niels at thykier.net>
> wrote:
> >
> >> On Wed, 22 Mar 2017 19:01:54 +0100 Michael Stapelberg
> >> <stapelberg at debian.org> wrote:
> >>> Package: debhelper
> >>> Version: 10.2.5
> >>> Severity: normal
> >>>
> >>> Currently, when trying to build a Debian package whose binary packages
> >>> specify “€œArchitecture: arm64“€  on an amd64 machine, I get the
> >> following
> >>> error message:
> >>>
> >>> raspi3-firmware $ dh clean
> >>> dh: No packages to build.
> >>>
> >>> While this is technically correct, the error message could be way
> >>> friendlier: I’€™d suggest something along the lines of “No packages to
> >>> build (architecture mismatch: got amd64, want arm64)“€ .
> >>>
> >>> What do you think?
> >>>
> >>> [...]
> >>
> >> I am fine with getting patches for the better error messages.
> >>
> >
> > Perfect. Find attached a patch to that effect.
> >
> >
>
> Thanks,
>
> I am not sure that it is safe to change the return value of
> package_arch().  E.g. it is used to determine the name of the binNMU
> changelog, and I suspect things will break if all binNMUs start to use
> "changelog.Debian.linux-any.gz" regardless architecture. :)
>

Thanks for the details. I found 4 callers of package_arch, of which 2
merely compare whether package_arch returns 'all'. I think it would be
cleaner to move the “turn specified arch into actual build arch” logic into
the remaining 2 callsites, rather than keep the old misnomer package_arch
around. Do you agree? If not, what do you suggest we do?


>
> >>
> >> Please keep in mind that the "want" part includes architecture
> >> wildcards, which debhelper doesn't deal with directly so far.
> >>
> >
> > I don’t follow. My patch displays the “want” part as-is. Shouldn’t that
> > give users all the information they need?
> >
> > [...]
>
> Right, it will show wildcards and that is what you intended. :)  I agree
> it is better than the status quo, so lets go with that.
>
> Thanks,
> ~Niels
>
>
>


-- 
Best regards,
Michael
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