Hello, The build-depends is limited when it comes to compiling a package based on a number of different and incompatible libraries.
Take Kerberos for an example - it has two implementations MIT and Heimdal. Currently, this requires two separate source packages, in order to set the build-depends correctly. This is despite the fact that most of the code is exactly the same. Ideally, you need to be able to do something like: ----- cut ----- Source: libpam-heimdal Section: non-US/main Priority: optional Maintainer: Brian May <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Standards-Version: 3.0.1 Build-Depends: debhelper Package: libpam-heimdal Architecture: any Depends: ${shlibs:Depends} Build-Depends: heimdal-dev Description: PAM module for Heimdal A Kerberos v5 pam module for use with Heimdal kerberos. This module should only be used for local logins unless you really know what you are doing. Package: libpam-krb5 Architecture: any Depends: ${shlibs:Depends} Build-Depends: libkrb5-dev Description: PAM module for MIT Kerberos 5 A Kerberos v5 pam module for use with MIT Kerberos 5 kerberos. This module should only be used for local logins unless you really know what you are doing. ----- cut ----- So, if heimdal-dev is installed the libpam-heimdal will get built, otherwise if libkrb5-dev is installed, then libpam-krb5 will get built. (Note: heimdal-dev and libkrb5-dev can not be installed at the same time). The list of packages which can be built would need to be passed somehow to debian/rules, so it does not have to duplicate this logic. The only disadvantage I can see in this is if the package must be rebuilt, say for Heimdal because of library changes in Heimdal. If the maintainer forces the package to be rebuilt by uploading a new version, then it would have to be rebuilt for the MIT version, too. Perhaps this is a problem with using the debian release number to reflect the version of the source *and* the version of the build. Or, put another way, just recompiling the source shouldn't change the source version, but the version of the binary package must be higher or it won't get installed. Comments? -- Brian May <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>