[PKG-Openstack-devel] Bug#902830: openstack-pkg-tools is presently unsuitable using in Build-Depends for cross building

[Helmut Grohne]

Package: openstack-pkg-tools
Version: 81
User: helmutg at debian.org
Usertags: rebootstrap
Control: affects -1 src:ntpstat src:openvswitch src:python-posix-ipc src:python-rjsmin src:python-wrapt src:subunit src:websockify

The affected packages cannot satisfy their cross Build-Depends, because
their (transitive) dependency on openstack-pkg-tools is not satisfiable.
In general, Architecture: all packages can never satisfy cross
Build-Depends unless marked Multi-Arch: foreign. In this case, it is
very unclear whether such a marking is correct, because
openstack-pkg-tools composes so much functionality into a single
package. It may never be safe to mark it Multi-Arch: foreign, so making
packages cross buildable presently involves removing it from
Build-Depends, which runs counter to its goal. We should seek a way to
avoid that route.

One aspect is that openstack-pkg-tools kinda is a metapackage as it
exposes its dependencies to consumers. Thus each dependency needs to be
looked at individually (but that's not enough):
 * autopkgtest is not Multi-Arch: foreign. I kinda doubt that packages
   use autopkgtest to run tests during build, so this dependency is more
   of a convenience dependency. Would it be possible to either demote it
   to Recommends (effectively removing it from package builds) or adding
   a openstack-pkg-dev-tools to be installed for development, which is
   not supposed to be used in Build-Depends?
 * gettext is Multi-Arch: foreign.
 * libxml-xpath-perl is not Multi-Arch: foreign and cannot become
   Multi-Arch: foreign due to the multiarch interpreter problem. I don't
   understand why openstack-pkg-tools needs it.
 * madison-lite is not Multi-Arch: foreign, but the tool primarily
   exists for checking archive package metadata, i.e. it requires a
   network connection. That's not something one can rely on during
   package builds. Can it be demoted to Recommends or split out?
 * po-debconf is Multi-Arch: foreign.
 * pristine-tar is not Multi-Arch: foreign, but maybe could be.

Given the above, I ask you to reduce the scope of openstack-pkg-tools.
Please split it into two packages:
 * One for use in Build-Depends.
 * Another for developer tools that are not required for building
   packages.

After such a split has been performed, we can reevaluate the possibility
of marking openstack-pkg-tools Multi-Arch: foreign. Please close this
bug once openstack-pkg-tools is split or its dependencies have been
reduced (e.g. using Recommends).

Helmut