[debhelper-devel] debhelp test fail when buil on Fedora arm

[Niels Thykier]

On 2015-04-24 21:39, Sérgio Basto wrote:
> Hi, 
> when we try build last debhelper on Fedora arm  we got a test failed
> [1]  
> [...]
> 
> I have a bug report on bugzilla [2] where you got all information
> available .
> The most relevant info is on [3] and it says "Well, given for
> armv7hl-redhat-linux-gnu, I think we want "armhfp" to be
> our architecture... I wouldn't quite "blame" anyone, but we probably
> need a translation layer between our triplet, and Debian's idea of what
> it means."  
> 
> Anyway this package is an noarch, not arch dependent, and the Perl test
> only fails on an arm builder.
> Perl test proves or not, that can run incorrectly on Fedora arm and not
> in a Debian arm ? 
> This doesn't make sense, because package is an noarch,  so or the
> test is wrong and can't test arches or debhelper is "archable" and we
> got a problem only in arm , am I thinking correctly ?  
> 
> 
> Thanks, 
> 
> [...]

Hi,

I suspect the setup made debhelper believe you were trying to
cross-build the (test) package.

The debhelper "autoconf" build system includes the following piece
(modulo forced line wraps):
"""
# Provide --host only if different from --build, as recommended in
# autotools-dev README.Debian: When provided (even if equal)
# autoconf 2.52+ switches to cross-compiling mode.
if (dpkg_architecture_value("DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE")
    ne dpkg_architecture_value("DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE")) {
	push @opts, "--host=" . dpkg_architecture_value("DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE");
}
"""

Which, at first glance, fits with the extra option triggering a test
failure.

However, I am not able to figure out why this happens (only) on your arm
box.  This might be related to the remark the mapping of dpkg architecture.

If possible, try to compare the output of the following commands in the
arm box with the build failures:
  dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE
  dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE

If they are not byte-for-byte identical, it will currently trigger the
cross-build support and break the test.

Thanks,
~Niels