Bug#806023: exim4: FTBFS when built with dpkg-buildpackage -A (No such file or directory)

[Santiago Vila]

Package: src:exim4
Version: 4.86-6
User: sanvila at debian.org
Usertags: binary-indep
Severity: important

Dear maintainer:

I tried to build this package with "dpkg-buildpackage -A"
(i.e. only architecture-independent packages), and it failed:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[...]
 fakeroot debian/rules binary-indep
mkdir b-exim4-daemon-light
find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 \
	-name debian -prune -o \
	-name 'b-*' -o -print0 | \
	xargs --no-run-if-empty --null \
	cp -a --target-directory=b-exim4-daemon-light
printf '#define REPBUILDDATE "Nov  8 2015"\n' \
	> b-exim4-daemon-light/src/repbuildtime.h && \
	printf '#define REPBUILDTIME "06:55:51"\n' \
	>> b-exim4-daemon-light/src/repbuildtime.h
mkdir b-exim4-daemon-heavy
find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 \
	-name debian -prune -o \
	-name 'b-*' -o -print0 | \
	xargs --no-run-if-empty --null \
	cp -a --target-directory=b-exim4-daemon-heavy
printf '#define REPBUILDDATE "Nov  8 2015"\n' \
	> b-exim4-daemon-heavy/src/repbuildtime.h && \
	printf '#define REPBUILDTIME "06:55:51"\n' \
	>> b-exim4-daemon-heavy/src/repbuildtime.h
patch -o EDITME.eximon exim_monitor/EDITME \

[... snipped ...]

debian/minimaltest: running with id 0, exiting.
touch test-stamp
dh_testdir -i
dh_testroot -i
# upstream changelog is only in exim4-base
dh_link -i
dh_installchangelogs -i -XCHANGES
dh_installdocs -i
cp: cannot stat 'debian/README.Debian': No such file or directory
dh_installdocs: cp --reflink=auto -a debian/README.Debian debian/exim4-config/usr/share/doc/exim4-config returned exit code 1
debian/rules:407: recipe for target 'binary-indep' failed
make: *** [binary-indep] Error 2
dpkg-buildpackage: error: fakeroot debian/rules binary-indep gave error exit status 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry not to have a fix, as I am reporting many bugs similar to
this one, but I can give some general hints:

* If all the arch-independent packages are dummy transitional packages
released with jessie, the easy fix is to drop them now.
 
* If not, debian/rules should be modified so that the binary-indep
target works in all cases, even when binary-arch is not used (this is
what the "Architecture: all" autobuilder does). For that:
    
* If you are using debhelper, you might want to use options -a and -i
for dh_* commands so that they do not act on packages they do not
have to act.

* Also, if you are using dh, the (independently) optional targets
override_dh_foo-arch and override_dh_foo-indep (for several values
of "foo") may be useful to write a debian/rules which behaves exactly
as desired.


After checking that both "dpkg-buildpackage -A" and "dpkg-buildpackage -B"
work properly, this package will be suitable to be uploaded in
source-only form if you wish (you might want to try it).

Thanks.