Bug#1067225: equivs-build fails due to duplicate debhelper compat level

[Maximilian Stein]

Package: equivs
Version: 2.3.1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

I tried to install all build dependencies given in a control file
using `mk-build-deps -ir` from devscripts. However, equis-build of the
package fails:

> dh: error: debhelper compat level specified both in debian/compat and via build-dependency on debhelper-compat
> make: *** [debian/rules:3: clean] Error 255

I dug a bit into the issue and noticed that equivs-build uses the file
/usr/share/equivs/template/debian/control.in as template for the
generated debian/control. The control.in lists a Build-Depends on
"debhelper-compat (= 12)". However, equivs-build also directly creates
a debian/compat with the content 12, which explains the observed
behavior.

Probably, equivs-build should simply stop writing the legacy
debian/compat file, i.e.,

--- /usr/bin/equivs-build       2021-11-01 11:37:21.859615519 +0100
+++ equivs-build        2024-03-20 14:17:06.560194426 +0100
@@ -331,10 +331,6 @@
                           "Essential",
                           "Description");
   close OUT;
-  open OUT, '>', "$builddir/debian/compat" or
-    die "Cannot open $builddir/debian/compat for writing: $!\n";
-  print OUT "12";
-  close OUT;
 }

Best,
Maximilian




-- System Information:
Debian Release: trixie/sid
  APT prefers stable-security
  APT policy: (990, 'stable-security'), (990, 'oldstable-security'), (990, 'oldoldstable'), (990, 'testing'), (990, 'stable'), (100, 'stable-updates'), (100, 'oldstable-updates'), (100, 'oldoldstable-updates'), (100, 'oldoldstable'), (100, 'unstable'), (100, 'oldstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.6.15-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages equivs depends on:
ii  debhelper  13.14.1
ii  dpkg-dev   1.22.4
ii  make       4.3-4.1
ii  perl       5.38.2-3

equivs recommends no packages.

equivs suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information