Bug#754697: Please package the AspectClang branch in debian

[Reinhard Tartler]

On Sun, Jul 13, 2014 at 12:30 PM, Sylvestre Ledru <sylvestre at debian.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On 13/07/2014 15:30, Reinhard Tartler wrote:
>
> Package: aspectc++,llvm-toolchain-3.4
> After several discussions with AspectC++ upstream, it seems rather unlikely
> that this patch gets applied upstream any time soon.
>
> Pointer ? Anyway, that is too me the only right way to go.

Olaf (CC'ed), would you mind to provide references about these
attempts? Maybe Benjamin could chime in here?

> BTW, are you part of upstream ?

While I technically do have commit access, I don't actively
participate in aspectc++ development for other than obvious build
fixes. I've used it in the past for porting issues to non-mainstream
architectures, for instance.

>
> Therefore, I'm exploring other options:
>
> Make llvm-toolchain-3.4 provide a "llvm-clang-3.4-source" binary package
> that provides the unpatched source code, so that the AspectC++ source
> package can build-depend on that, copy the sources into the build directory
> and follow the rest of the instructions outline in README.LLVM
>
> FYI, to build clang, you need also the llvm sources.

Correct, that's why that binary package would need to contain both
LLVM and Clang sources.

> Anyway, I am not sure how this would help you. You would have your own
> instance of clang with your patches ?

The Aspectc++ package would at build time extract the sources into its
build directory, configure clang as instructed in the README, and
proceed with the build.

>
> Integrate AspectC++ into the llvm-toolchain package
>
> That probably won't happen. It is touching critical files, I don't want to
> carry patches (especially since clang code is changing a lot) and I don't
> want Debian clang
> to be different from upstream.

Right, this would require an extra build pass so that the "regular"
compiler patches will not be built with the aspectc++ modifications.

>> Provide a build/installation script in
>> /usr/share/doc/aspectc++/build_with_clang.sh that uses 'apt-get source
>> llvm-toolchain-3.4' and 'apt-get source aspectc++ to obtain the clang and
>> aspectc++ sources, and implements the instructions in the README.LLVM.
>>This would provide a user-local copy of ac++ with clang, and increases
>> maintenance work
>
> Why not.

This won't work for instance for offline systems, and is much more
complicated to automate compared to install a debian package.
Moreover, it is much more fragile and I fear easier to break.



-- 
regards,
    Reinhard