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]
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