[Pkg-swan-devel] Bug#828945: Bug#828945: strongswan: FTBFS in testing (configure fails)

[Santiago Vila]

Hi.

Version 5.4.0-3 has just reached testing, my autobuilder has tried to
build it, and it failed again.

May I know why is this marked as "unreproducible" and "moreinfo"?


In case it helps, here is a short summary: This package relies on
systemd being present in the system to be built. systemd is not
build-essential. Therefore systemd should be in the build-depends.
This is just Debian policy.

If you are waiting for this package to FTBFS in any of the official
autobuilders, well, this already happened:

https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=strongswan

It FTBFS in mips64el. No, it's not a bug in the mips64el chroot not to
have systemd installed, because, again, systemd is not build-essential.


While we are at it, it would be good if you could avoid the
build-dependency altogether. The error message is like this:

  checking for systemd system unit directory... configure: error: not
  found (try --with-systemdsystemunitdir)

I have not looked at the code, but this suggests to me that it tries
to determine the "system unit directory" from the *installed* systemd,
but it also accepts the directory being specified via
--with-systemdsystemunitdir.

In other words: Maybe by adding a suitable --with-systemdsystemunitdir
explicit option in the configure line the build-dependency on systemd
could be avoided. I would try that route.

Thanks.