[Debichem-devel] Bug#534082: openbabel: FTBFS: Nonexistent build-dependency: libboost1.37-dev

[Daniel Leidert]

Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> On 08/07/09 at 22:57 +0200, Daniel Leidert wrote:
>> Hi Lucas,
>>
>> Thanks for your work. But the alternative to libboost1.37-dev:
>> libboost-dev is available since May, so it should have been available
>> during your rebuild in June too. I don't know, why the package failed to
>> build, but it doesn't fail here. I'm going to close this report. If you
>> still observe the problem, please reopen your report.
>
> Hi Daniel,
>
> (note that messages sent to the bug number aren't sent to the submitter.
> You should Cc the submitter in such cases).

JFTR: It was sent to -done, which AFAIK automatically sends a note to the
submitter. Did this change recently?

> Alternatives in build-dependencies are not supported by sbuild,

Use the -C switch. Further this behavior is violating the Debian Policy section
7.1. You might file a bug report with severity "normal", but not a serious bug.
The alternative package is available and has to be used accordingly to the policy:

"[..] the package names listed may also include lists of alternative package
names, separated by vertical bar (pipe) symbols |. In such a case, if any one
of the alternative packages is installed, that part of the dependency is
considered to be satisfied. [..]"

> and are
> a bad idea in general (because your package might end up being built
> against different packages on different arches).

They might be a bad idea in some cases, but not in our case, where libboost-dev is
the expected fallback, if libboost1.37-dev is not available. This is the result of
more than 4 boost versions in Debian and libboost-dev will stay the alternative
version. I don't see any other solution.

Downgrading this bug to normal.

Regards, Daniel