[Pkg-Cyrus-imapd-Debian-devel] .orig.tar.gz orig vs. repacked

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Tue, 30 Aug 2005, Sven Mueller wrote:
> dpkg-buildpackage -b -tc
> twice from within the same unpacked sources, which makes developing a

Removing files properly (i.e. you recreate them when you need them in the
proper places in debian/rules) will NOT break dpkg-buildpackage -b -tc...

> lead to the same conclusion: A source package should be left in a
> buildable state after "debian/rules clean". Simply removing modified
> files defeats this under many circumstances.

Well, that conclusion is incompatible with using separate build-trees (many,
MANY packages do this, xorg comes to mind).  There are a lot of packages
that cannot be even packaged in other ways (because they build a number of
different versions of their programs using different build-trees).

I'd say that a Debian build-tree must be Debian-buildable after debian/rules
clean, i.e. thorugh debian/rules.  Anything else simply does not match
reality.

> 1) add a target create-tarball (or however it was called) to fetch the
>    newest upstream tarball and repack it as we want it.

That's doable, and there is a semi-standard target for it. I don't recall
which, though.  We will have to hunt it down in the MLs.

> 2) clean up and modify the upstream tarball contents during build,
>    reverting changes to non-auto-generated files in "debian/rules
>    clean".

Yuck.  Waste of resources for NO good reason whatsoever.  If someone wants to
build the upstream source with all breackages, he can get the upstream
tarball and use it.

> > Why do we need to have a cleaned up .orig.tar.gz?  It ends up causing us
> > more work, since we have to take care of it anyway.
> 
> True. That's why I want to get back to the pristine upstream tarball.

So we do the cleanup in debian/rules where needed, then (this is what I do
in EVERY package I maintain :-) learned it with ESR's fetchmail tarballs
that would do very, very unpleasant things from time to time).  What I do
not agree with is going to the kind of pain we will have to to restore the
build *tree* to the fucked-up state after a build.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh