[Debian-med-packaging] Bug#806070: loki: FTBFS when built with dpkg-buildpackage -A (No such file or directory)

[Santiago Vila]

Package: src:loki
Version: 2.4.7.4-5
User: sanvila at debian.org
Usertags: binary-indep
Severity: important

Dear maintainer:

I tried to build this package with "dpkg-buildpackage -A"
(i.e. only architecture-independent packages), and it failed:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[...]
 fakeroot debian/rules binary-indep
dh binary-indep
   dh_testroot -i
   dh_prep -i
   debian/rules override_dh_auto_install
make[1]: Entering directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
for man in check_het.1 hist.1 loki_count.1 loki_dist.1 loki_ext.1 loki_freq.1 loki_sort_error.1 prep.1 qavg.1 ; do \
    ln -s loki.1.gz debian/loki/usr/share/man/man1/${man}.gz ; \
done
ln: failed to create symbolic link 'debian/loki/usr/share/man/man1/check_het.1.gz': No such file or directory
ln: failed to create symbolic link 'debian/loki/usr/share/man/man1/hist.1.gz': No such file or directory
ln: failed to create symbolic link 'debian/loki/usr/share/man/man1/loki_count.1.gz': No such file or directory
ln: failed to create symbolic link 'debian/loki/usr/share/man/man1/loki_dist.1.gz': No such file or directory
ln: failed to create symbolic link 'debian/loki/usr/share/man/man1/loki_ext.1.gz': No such file or directory
ln: failed to create symbolic link 'debian/loki/usr/share/man/man1/loki_freq.1.gz': No such file or directory
ln: failed to create symbolic link 'debian/loki/usr/share/man/man1/loki_sort_error.1.gz': No such file or directory
ln: failed to create symbolic link 'debian/loki/usr/share/man/man1/prep.1.gz': No such file or directory
ln: failed to create symbolic link 'debian/loki/usr/share/man/man1/qavg.1.gz': No such file or directory
debian/rules:22: recipe for target 'override_dh_auto_install' failed
make[1]: *** [override_dh_auto_install] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
debian/rules:19: recipe for target 'binary-indep' failed
make: *** [binary-indep] Error 2
dpkg-buildpackage: error: fakeroot debian/rules binary-indep gave error exit status 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry not to have a fix, as I am reporting many bugs similar to
this one, but I can give some general hints:

* If all the arch-independent packages are dummy transitional packages
released with jessie, the easy fix is to drop them now.
 
* If not, debian/rules should be modified so that the binary-indep
target works in all cases, even when binary-arch is not used (this is
what the "Architecture: all" autobuilder does). For that:
    
* If you are using debhelper, you might want to use options -a and -i
for dh_* commands so that they do not act on packages they do not
have to act.

* Also, if you are using dh, the (independently) optional targets
override_dh_foo-arch and override_dh_foo-indep (for several values
of "foo") may be useful to write a debian/rules which behaves exactly
as desired.


After checking that both "dpkg-buildpackage -A" and "dpkg-buildpackage -B"
work properly, this package will be suitable to be uploaded in
source-only form if you wish (you might want to try it).

Thanks.