Bug#633312: gmp: Emptying dependency_libs in .la files

[codehelp at debian.org]

Package: gmp
Version: 2:5.0.1+dfsg-7
Severity: normal
User: codehelp at debian.org
Usertags: la-file-removal

 To finish an old release goal from Squeeze, to comply with Policy
10.2 and to ease the introduction of MultiArch, I'm filing bugs
against packages which contain .la files which need to be stripped of
the dependency_libs variable.

This is the second phase of the MBF and packages should *NOT* remove
the .la file itself at this stage because other packages still expect
to find the .la file and this would cause a FTBFS in that package.
(Bugs have been filed to have those packages fixed.)

To clear the dependency_libs, use something like this command from
the wiki page. Add the command to your debian/rules file after the
files have been installed under debian/tmp or debian/$package:

sed -i "/dependency_libs/ s/'.*'/''/" `find debian/ -name '*.l
a'`

http://wiki.debian.org/ReleaseGoals/LAFileRemoval

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/04/msg00055.html

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/04/msg00199.html

Feel free to use a package like deb-gview to inspect the contents of
your packages after the build. Something like:

$ deb-gview ../gmp_2:5.0.1+dfsg-7*.changes &

You can then view each package and inspect the contents of each .la
file in each binary package prior to upload.

Data has been obtained from the output of an automated script:

http://release.debian.org/~aba/la/current.txt

The output is best read in conjunction with the criteria from this
post to debian-devel:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2009/08/msg00808.html

This phase is all about the packages on this list which both have
dependency_libs and are depended-on by other packages.

To generate the list of packages, I've used:

grep depended-on current.txt | grep dependency_libs |cut -d: -f1

After forming the list, each package has been checked and the gmp
(2:5.0.1+dfsg-7) source package in unstable has at least one .la file
with the dependency_libs specified.

The data is regularly updated but please accept my apologies if you
have made an upload which changes the situation since the data was
parsed.

In the unusual case that your package uses libltdl directly, it is
still necessary to empty the dependency_libs part of all .la files
remaining in the package. It is important that .la files are NOT
removed in this phase to avoid FTBFS bugs.

If you believe that your package needs both the .la file and the
dependency_libs settings, please raise this on debian-devel for
clarification.
-- 

Neil Williams
=============
codehelp at debian.org
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/