Bug#396459: libsdl1.2-dev: Dropping *-dev dependencies breaks package builds too close to release

[Steve Langasek]

On Wed, Nov 01, 2006 at 05:49:41AM +0100, Daniel Schepler wrote:
> On Wednesday 01 November 2006 00:17 am, Steve Langasek wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 31, 2006 at 10:12:17PM +0100, Daniel Schepler wrote:
> > > After the recent upload of libsdl1.2-dev downgrading the *-dev
> > > dependencies to recommends, lots of packages (for example mednafen,
> > > missing a libgl-dev dependency) have started failing to build from source
> > > because they don't properly declare those dependencies themselves
> > > introduced by their own source.  While this is unquestionably a bug in
> > > the other packages, the change breaks too many packages close to release
> > > time, so in my opinion the new version of libsdl1.2-dev should not make
> > > it into etch.

> > As this is a case of exposing RC bugs in those packages, not causing them,
> > I'm inclined to disagree.  Do you have a sense of how many packages are
> > actually affected by this change?  I would hope that in this day and age,
> > the final count of affected packages would be relatively small.

> So far, out of about 50 packages I've tried rebuilding with libsdl* and sdl* 
> rebuilt, I've found 8 failures.  Assuming the proportion continues for the 
> rest, with approximately 200 SDL-using packages that I counted, that makes 
> about 30 new RC bugs.

> Some of the most common failures:

> * [2] SDL_syswm.h needs the X headers.  I'm not sure whether this should be 
> fixed in libsdl1.2-dev or not; if it is, that could take care of about 1/3 to 
> 1/2 of the failures.

Seems like a clear case of a bug in libsdl1.2-dev to me, that should be
fixed by re-adding that particular dependency.

> * [4] Packages using GL without proper Build-Depends.

What percentage of the build failures are caused by this?  Those are still
bugs in the packages using GL in this way (and the bugs should be reported
and fixed), but if the number of affected packages is large enough, it may
be worth having libsdl1.2-dev re-add this dep as well for the sake of
expediency.

> As a side note: audacious failed because pbuilder doesn't 
> understand "libasound2-dev [linux-any]".  Do the buildd's understand it?

No, they do not.

Thanks,
-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon at debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/