Thorsten Glaser: > Package: debhelper > Version: 13.1 > Severity: important > > Something for debhelper compat 14 ;-) > > I’m packaging a piece of s…oftware whose main buildsystem entry > is in a subdirectory so I’m using --sourcedir=thatsubdir in the > call to dh7. > > The build then fails because dh_missing complains about every > file in the tree being not installed. Looking at its manpage > it abuses --sourcedir for something with completely different > semantics. >
Historical artefact caused by debhelper accepting abbreviations of the full parameters, which causes this issue. Honestly, I am not sure whether dh_install's --sourcedir or dh_auto_* --sourcedir (via autoabbrev) came first. Anyhow, based on your report, you can probably resolve this by using --sourcedirectory=thatsubdir. The longer form is *only* accepted by the dh_auto_* tools (making dh_install/dh_missing ignore it). > I’d have expected something else, like --destdir or, with BSD > ports terminology, --fakedir, or so. > Sadly, --destdir is also taken... by dh_builddir. >.> > Of course, dh_missing’s --sourcedir cannot be renamed within > a compat level. But it should, for the next one. > > [...] Indeed, it might be overdue to clean up this ancient clashes. ~Niels
