[Python-modules-team] Bug#915856: sphinx: Failed cross building with Build-Depends on python3-sphinx

[Helmut Grohne]

Hi Dmitry,

On Fri, Jan 25, 2019 at 11:14:23AM +0300, Dmitry Shachnev wrote:
> Does this mean that packages that are not using autodoc (like ncmpc) can
> already build-depend on python3-sphinx:native to become cross-buildable?

Yes, that is my understanding. My plan was postponing such patches to
simplify stretch-backports. I'm not opposed to them in general, I just
didn't want to cause unnecessary work.

> Does cmake sound like a good start? It already has docs in a separate
> package, just needs the B-D adjusted.

Yes, cmake is on the list above precisely due to sphinx. It also is a
key package, so it fits my description very well.

I certainly appreciate you putting effort in resolving these issues. I
also appreciate X-Debbugs-Cc (to record the bug numbers).

Debian unstable currently has almost 30000 source packages. Almost 14000
of them build architecture-dependent binary packages. (The others are
irrelevant to cross building). Around 7500 have cross-satisfiable
dependencies. I didn't work that much on satisfiability problems lately,
so this is only around 55%. Having you work here would be a boon. Of the
3900 packages that I tried building, 2900 do cross build. This is a much
higher ratio of almost 75%. Getting those 55% up would be awesome. If
you fix half of the sphinx users, we're 1% closer to perfection. :)

Helmut