[debhelper-devel] Bug#765446: Bug#765446: debhelper build target status file packagename.debhelper.log is not documented

[Joey Hess]

Mikko Rapeli wrote:
> I have fought this issue for years. Build a package and then try to fix
> some bugs locally. Silly bugs like bad .install or package scripts should be
> straight forward to fix without complete rebuild of the package,
> which can take hours, or even days on smaller machines. If I add a simple
> fix to installed files or the scripts, another run with
> 'fakeroot debian/rules binary' doesn't actually do anything more when
> debhelper is used.
> 
> The developer use case is different from what debian infrastructure does and
> yes proper builds need always be clean and start from scratch.
> 
> But I see nothing bad in documenting a useful development feature like
> stepping back only few debhelper build steps without complete rebuild.

A better approach is to run dh_clean, which removes all debhelper cruft,
while leaving the package built. Assuming a sane Makefile, or a
debian/rules that uses build-stamp to work around a buggy upstream
Makefile, debian/rules binary can then be run again and will reuse what
has already been compiled.

-- 
see shy jo
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