[php-maint] Bug#614413: Build-Depends: Buggy use of alternative dependencies

[Roger Leigh]

Package: php5
Version: 5.3.5-1
Severity: important

php5 is using these alternative build dependencies:

automake (>= 1.11) | automake1.11
libcurl4-openssl-dev | libcurl-dev
libdb-dev (>= 4.7) | libdb4.8-dev | libdb4.6-dev,
libjpeg-dev | libjpeg62-dev
libmysqlclient-dev | libmysqlclient15-dev

The build dependency resolver is currently only using the first
alternative.  Newer resolvers use the other alternatives, and
this can potentially lead to inconsistency between builds.

Please only use one package, the one you specifically want for
the build, and drop the alternatives.  The use of alternatives
in build dependencies is not supported.  In particular, you really
only want one specific version of libdb (4.8?); there must be no
uncertainty about this when the build dæmon installs the build
dependencies.  The same thing applies to automake and the other
packages using alternatives.

This is an identified bug from from the whole archive rebuild
results at

  http://people.debian.org/~rleigh/squeeze-rebuild/report.pdf

php5_5.3.3-7:
    internal installs libdb-dev_4.8.
    Another transitional-like package where apt and aptitude pick
    the direct dependency rather than using a metapackage.


Thanks,
Roger

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (550, 'unstable'), (400, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.37-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash