Package: dh-autoreconf Version: 7 Severity: wishlist dh-autoreconf(7) says:
dh_autoreconf is a superset of the autotools-dev debhelper addons, so you do not need --with=autotools_dev if you use --with=autoreconf. In fact, in most cases they should not be used together, as it may lead to unpredictable behaviour. For the most part, I agree. However, there is one not entirely uncommon situation where dh_autoreconf is not in fact a superset of the autotools-dev add-ons. autoreconf doesn't update config.guess and config.sub directly, but only (as far as I know) by way of automake and possibly libtoolize. If you have a package that only uses Autoconf and not Automake or Libtool, but that does use the AC_CANONICAL_* macros (I have one such, admittedly the joke package vigor, but no doubt more sensible examples exist), then dh_autoreconf will not update config.{guess,sub} but dh_autotools-dev_updateconfig will. It's therefore not strictly true to say that the former is a superset of the latter. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, and I know the autotools fairly well, so I think it would be worth documenting this situation. I tend to agree that combining dh_autoreconf and the autotools-dev add-ons is rather confusing, although I suspect it could be made to work with some care. My approach was to build-depend on "debhelper (>= 7.0.50~), dh-autoreconf, autotools-dev", and then put this in debian/rules (actually I did something slightly different in vigor because its configure lives in a build/ subdirectory, but it would be better to document a more common case): autoreconf: autoreconf -f -i cp -f /usr/share/misc/config.guess /usr/share/misc/config.guess ./ override_dh_autoreconf: dh_autoreconf debian/rules -- autoreconf Perhaps it would be worth adding something along these lines as an example, to help out the next developer who runs into this? Thanks, -- Colin Watson [cjwat...@debian.org] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org