Control: tags -1 moreinfo
Santiago Vila:
> Package: debhelper
> Version: 12.1.1
>
> Hello Niels.
>
Hi,
> I tried using compat version 12 in package "hello" and this is what happened:
>
For reference/FYI, I suspect this will happen already at compat 10 or
later (I noted that hello in sid uses compat 9 and compat 10 is the
first to use dh_autoreconf by default).
> sh: 1: build-aux/git-version-gen: not found
> sh: 1: build-aux/git-version-gen: not found
> sh: 1: build-aux/git-version-gen: not found
> sh: 1: build-aux/git-version-gen: not found
> sh: 1: build-aux/git-version-gen: not found
>
> Is this normal/expected/safe?
>
> I'd like to see it documented somewhere.
>
> Thanks.
>
I think this is because of two things:
1) The source does not include build-aux/git-version-gen
2) The configure.ac references build-aux/git-version-gen and appears
to use it unconditionally[1]
So when dh_autoreconf does its job of regenerating the build scripts
from configure.ac, then it will trigger those warnings because of the
above. I.e. this is a "hello"-specific issue.
Not sure what the proper fix is here. Options include:
* Have upstream include build-aux/git-version-gen in the source
- Though it may need git and a git repo to work properly, so this
might only make sense from the PoV of ensuring that we have the
complete source of the build scripts.
* Patch configure.ac to *not* rely on the build-aux/git-version-gen
script
* Skip reconfiguration by overriding dh_autoreconf (see [2] as an
example).
I hope the above answers your question.
Thanks,
~Niels
[1]: https://sources.debian.org/src/hello/2.10-1/configure.ac/#L12
[2]:
"""
# Skip dh_autoreconf because <reason here>.
override_dh_autoreconf:
"""
