[Debian-med-packaging] Bug#579239: libbio-scf-perl - FTBFS: #error Neither BIG nor LITTLE endian defined

[Charles Plessy]

Le Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 06:34:49PM +0200, Julien Cristau a écrit :
> > 
> http://release.debian.org/squeeze/rc_policy.txt
> 
>         Packages must autobuild without failure on all architectures on
>         which they are supported. Packages must be supported on as many
>         architectures as is reasonably possible.
> 
> Surely including <endian.h> counts as reasonable?

Hello Julien,

the upstream author is well aware of porting issues, for he works at the Sanger
institute, which supports Debian by providing an alpha buildd and an alpha
porterbox, not to mention bandwith and machines on other architectures.

I forwarded him the bug #544751 some time ago. I have to say that I am not
surprised that he did not fix this yet, given that nobody expressed interest to
use libstaden-read-dev on architectures where it is not yet available.

I have no doubts that things could change if you would provide a bit more
details on what are your plans to use libstaden-read-dev or libbio-scf-perl on
non-Intel/AMD platforms, or if you would sent him a patch. In the absence of
such motivations, I think that the current support is ‘reasonable’. Also if
your patch is not included in a new upstream version, I will be reluctant to
apply it, because I have no time, competence or motivation to support
libstaden-read-dev on platforms that are not supported upstream.

I have been a bit long in order to be comprehensive, so that we have a
good starting point for asking to the technical comittee for a resolution
if we can not find an agreement.

Have a nice day,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Debian Med packaging team
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan