[Pkg-octave-devel] Building octave from git clone fails

[Rafael Laboissiere]

* Mike Miller <mtmiller at debian.org> [2016-01-23 11:06]:

> On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 19:04:46 +0100, Rafael Laboissiere wrote:
>>
>> Touching the target file seems to fix the problem:
>>
>>    touch libinterp/parse-tree/oct-gperf.h
>>
>> I am considering adding this to d/rules.  Any objections?
>
> Why not go the other way and touch the .gperf file and add build-deps on 
> gperf, and bison and flex while we're at it? See also #798427.
>
> In general, Debian likes to build everything from original source files. 
> Bison, flex, and gperf files are generated and packed with the source, 
> but are not the preferred form of modification.

Is there are real advantage of doing it in the Debain packaging? I could 
imagine that it would be advantageous if the generated files present 
improvements in respect to the ones shipped in the tarball.  In this 
case, we end up with changed files.  However, as you have noticed:

> I know this adds a risk of modifying a source file so there's no going 
> back to a clean state (other than git checkout).

I think that keeping track of these changed files will be painful.

My inclination is to avoid rebuilding the bison/flex/gperf files, unless 
it is strictly necessary.

Rafael