[pkg-nvidia-devel] [PATCH 2/2] [nvidia-graphics-modules-i386] generating debian/control

[Russ Allbery]

Andreas Beckmann <debian at abeckmann.de> writes:

> here comes a patch that makes debian/control generatable in a save way.
> Inspired a bit by the kernel-support way using debian/control.md5sum to
> check for modifications and using a debian/control-real target that
> fails after successful regeneration to prevent this from happening
> during automated builds. There are two templates, debian/control.source
> and debian/control.flavor. The main place to "tune" variables (usually
> setting new versions) is debian/rules.defs.

>  * add debian/control.source and debian/control.flavor as templates for
>    generating debian/control
>  * debian/rules
>    - add debian/control-real target to update debian/control and
>      debian/control.md5sum

Hurm, I'm not sure that I'm a fan here.  It's a really neat way to get
towards a goal of minimizing the number of places that the package has to
change for a new kernel and NVIDIA version, but it also adds a whole ton
of somewhat inobvious complexity.  And I admit to having a real bias
against auto-generated debian/control files where they can be avoided.

Currently, all one has to do is a search and replace on the kernel and
NVIDIA version in debian/control and debian/rules when updating for a new
release, which is mechanical and straightforward.  It's not as elegant,
but it makes the resulting package very easy to understand.

In the long run, to mention, I expect this package to go away completely
in favor of just requiring that people either use DKMS or module-assistant
to build the modules.  That's the direction that all the other kernel
add-on packages are going so far as I can tell, and I don't think
ftp-master really likes the constant NEW processing of builds against new
kernel ABI versions.  DKMS makes the whole thing automatic and fairly
seamless.

What I did last night was basically stripping the package down to a
minimal core to make it easy to understand in the meantime, and so that we
can get new packages uploaded to unstable quickly so that we can finally
unblock the transition to testing.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra at debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>