Hi, The last post to this bug was done on 2004-08-23, which is ages ago. I think it's safe to say that Bill's proposal (create debian/rules.{version,targets} files which define what interfaces are implemented by the debian/rules file) did not get enough seconds. Personally, I happen to think that such a file would not be a very clean solution, which is the main reason why I didn't second it; Scott James Remnant, then the dpkg maintainer (dunno whether he still is), also hinted something to the same effect.
So, instead, I'm going to propose a patch to which I already hinted in <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: make build-arch and build-indep mandatory (in the long term), but make it legal for them to depend on the build target if splitting out their functionality is infeasible or impossible. I'm looking for seconds. Patch follows: --- policy.sgml.orig 2006-05-23 21:52:54.000000000 +0200 +++ policy.sgml 2006-05-23 22:16:29.000000000 +0200 @@ -1802,14 +1802,15 @@ </p> <p> - If one or both of the targets <tt>build-arch</tt> and - <tt>build-indep</tt> are not provided, then invoking - <file>debian/rules</file> with one of the not-provided - targets as arguments should produce a exit status code - of 2. Usually this is provided automatically by make - if the target is missing. - </p> - + If it is not technically possible or feasible to provide a + <tt>build-arch</tt> or <tt>build-indep</tt> target which + compiles <em>only</em> that which is specified above, then + you may make these two targets functionally the same as the + <tt>build</tt> target, for example by declaring the + <tt>build</tt> target a as a make dependency of both the + <tt>build-arch</tt> and the <tt>build-indep</tt> targets. + </p> + <p> The <tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> targets must not do anything that might require root privilege. -- Fun will now commence -- Seven Of Nine, "Ashes to Ashes", stardate 53679.4
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