[R-pkg-team] How to get the name of the main binary package with debhelper perl module (Was: Bug#897262: dh-r problem with higher-priority R packages)

[Niels Thykier]

Andreas Tille:
> On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 06:13:15PM -0500, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
>> I suspect this has to do with the fact that per an old tradition, these
>> packages install into
>>   /usr/lib/R/library/
>> whereas all others install into
>>   /usr/lib/R/site-library/
>> so I suspect a path may not be read correctly.
> 
> No, its since you are using a differnt source package name than the
> binary package.  In file
> 
>   https://salsa.debian.org/r-pkg-team/dh-r/blob/master/dh/R.pm
> 
>   148        open(my $svs, ">>", "debian/$sourcepackage.substvars");
> 
> the substvars are moved to debian/$sourcepackage.substvars which
> is just wrong.
> 
> Niels, I'm not a Perl programmer and to lazy to dive into the
> debhelper module.  Could you please point me to the way how to
> use the mainbinarypackage name there (usually R packages have
> only one binary package - so the first binary package name will
> solve the issue.
> 
> Kind regards
> 
>        Andreas.
> 

The $dh{MAINPACKAGE} variable exported via Debian::Debhelper::Dh_Lib
will do.  Note that it is subject to an explicit --mainpackage package
parameter (which can override debhelper's default).

Thanks,
~Niels