Bug#486492: [Fwd: Re: Bug#486492: gcc is not a useful dependency of pbuilder]

[Jean-Christophe Dubacq]

Sorry, forgot to CC bugs.debian.org.

Junichi Uekawa wrote:
>> dpkg-architecture is in fact in dpkg-dev which is not a dependency of
>> pbuilder anyway. If dpkg-architecture is called by pbuilder, dpkg-dev
>> should be a dependency (or at least a recommendation) of it (gcc is a
>> recommendation of dpkg-dev).
>> i   pbuilder  Depends    debconf (>= 0.5) | debconf-2.0
>> i A debconf   Recommends apt-utils (>= 0.5.1)
>> i A apt-utils Depends    libapt-pkg-libc6.7-6-4.6
>> i A apt       Provides   libapt-pkg-libc6.7-6-4.6
>> i A apt       Suggests   dpkg-dev
>>
>> (as you can see, there is a Suggests link, which according to aptitude
>> manual means that there is no stronger dependency chain).
>>
>> Putting a whole compiler as a dependency of some (very useful) scripts
>> whose purpose is (among others) to create chroots to compile IN the
>> chroot is at least a bit strange.
>>
>> However, I understand (after reading the source) the need to depend on
>> dpkg-dev somehow (for cross-compilation purposes, apparently). Since I
>> only do native compilation, I did not see this need.
> 
> pbuilder create calls debootstrap, and on a really base system,
> debootstrap used to require gcc to properly determine the system
> architecture and bootstrap.
> 
> However, that might have changed. If that's no longer the case, I
> think the dependency can be removed.
> 
> 
> regards,
> 	junichi

In a clean chroot, either
debootstrap etch /tmp/cdeb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/

and

cdebootstrap etch /tmp/cdeb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/

works correctly.

Moreover (in a clean chroot with cdebootstrap installed):
root at oberon:/# dpkg -i --force-depends
/var/cache/apt/archives/pbuilder_0.161_all.deb
Selecting previously deselected package pbuilder.
(Reading database ... 7331 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking pbuilder (from .../pbuilder_0.161_all.deb) ...
dpkg: pbuilder: dependency problems, but configuring anyway as you request:
 pbuilder depends on gcc; however:
  Package gcc is not installed.
Setting up pbuilder (0.161) ...
root at oberon:/# pbuilder create
W: /home/jcdubacq/.pbuilderrc does not exist
Distribution is sid.
Building the build environment
 -> running cdebootstrap
/usr/bin/cdebootstrap
P: Retrieving Release.gpg
P: Retrieving Release
P: Parsing Release
P: Retrieving Release
P: Retrieving Packages.gz
...

It looks like gcc is not needed indeed, at least for basic usage.