[Pkg-gnupg-maint] Bug#643341: Bug#643341: libgpg-error-dev: cross-compiling anything based on libgpg-error is painful

[Helmut Grohne]

On Wed, Sep 03, 2014 at 03:58:59PM -0400, Daniel Kahn Gillmor wrote:
> I'm unaware of any package that needs this particular requirement, and
> it seems to me that any -dev package currently in the archive would have
> the same issue, no?

I do not know about the situation Colin has in mind, but the general
requirement does exist in the archive right now.  An example is
src:guile-2.0.  src:gnutls28 build-depends on guile-2.0-dev (i.e. it
needs the host version) and also build-depends on autogen, which is
M-A:foreign and indirectly also depends on guile-2.0-dev (i.e. it needs
the build version).  This situation currently is unsatisfiable, because
guile-2.0-dev is M-A:no until #757591 is fixed.

> If there's nothing that needs this right now, and we don't forsee
> something like this arising, i'm inclined to close #643341 (marked
> wontfix), and let the actual circumstances dictate what changes need to
> be made when they do arise (possibly including re-opening this bug, or
> just referring to the history here).

If there was something like this in the archive already, then it should
have been identified by botch[1] at
http://bootstrap.debian.net/cross.html, but thus far I can only see
guile there and not libgpg-error.  That said, botch was wrong in the
past.

One thing that libgpg-error can do nonetheless is to move
/usr/include/gpg-error.h to /usr/include/<triplet>/gpg-error.h. This
avoids accidental inclusion of a wrong-architecture header. Refer to
<20140829095214.GV19999 at stoneboat.aleph1.co.uk> section 3.4 for details
or ask me.

In any case, turning libgpg-error-dev M-A:same should be a goal (and
arguably this is the current meaning of the bug being discussed). For
this reason alone, I argue that it should be kept open (and possibly
retitled to "make libgpg-error-dev Multi-Arch:same").

Helmut

[1] https://gitorious.org/debian-bootstrap/botch