> Le Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 04:02:32PM +0100, Tobi a écrit : > > > > Debian Policy 4.9 says about debian/rules: > > > > "It must start with the line #!/usr/bin/make -f, so that it can be > > invoked by saying its name rather than invoking make explicitly." > > Dear all, > > I also do not understand that rule. There are a larger number of packages that > are simply removing all the content from the make file, for instance like: >
[...] I don't think there's a point in disussing whether or not the shebang-line must be there (and that it must read as stated in policy). The fundamental point is that debian/rules must be a Makefile (and not just looks like a Makefile). Debian Policy 4.9 guarantees that the behavior of debian/rules will be the same if called as either make -f debian/rules or simply debian/rules. > > I think that the key part of the Policy is the interface: debian/rules can be > called with arguments such as ‘build’, ‘clean’, etc. When unique features of > GNU Make are not needed, I do not see much advantage in requiring that the > parts that actually do the work are wrapped into a makefile. Can’t we just > trust the maintainers instead of putting restrictions that in the end are only > increasing complexity for no benefit? > [...] Yes, it's the interface. And the first sentence of 4.9 reads as: "This file must be an executable makefile, and contains the package-specific recipes for compiling the package and building binary package(s) from the source." This implies that the interface is to a larger extent documented in the make documentation. Policy also specifies that a set of targets must be supported by this makefile, but it doesn't say that these are the (only) supported arguments. What about -j, for example? Not part of 4.9, but supported and documented by make. Adhering to a standard actually decreases complexity. What may seem "elegant" at first makes it a lot harder for other people to step in. For example, the VDR-solution IMHO doesn't decrease complexity, it merely hides it. Best, Michael
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