Control: tag -1 confirmed On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 11:29:19AM +0000, Colin Watson wrote: > 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.
I wonder why autoreconf does not just update config.guess/config.sub if it detects an AC_CANONICAL_* MACRO. > > 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 I think that using the autotools-dev add-on together with dh-autoreconf should work in such a case as well (using them together is only problematic if autoreconf changes config.{guess,sub}; otherwise it should just work). Although that solution works just as well. > > Perhaps it would be worth adding something along these lines as an > example, to help out the next developer who runs into this? Absolutely. -- Julian Andres Klode - Debian Developer, Ubuntu Member See http://wiki.debian.org/JulianAndresKlode and http://jak-linux.org/. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org