Re: Build dependencies: some thoughts
> OK, I've just tried to calculate the build-time dependencies for
> debian-policy, and here are some thoughts.
>
> It's not easy. In fact it's *really* not easy.
If you really want to (more or less) automate it, it's really not
easy... But for most packages, src-deps are rather clear. It seems you
have choosen one of the more complicated ones :-)
> I first tried running strace on the build process, but due to the
> presence of a vfork, I missed most of the interesting stuff.
> So strace is not a particularly useful way of figuring out
> dependencies.
[...]
I think the only really reliable way to find out which packages are
used by a build is with some libtricks-like method. I.e., you install
a wrapper lib that tracks all execve() & Co. calls and record the
invoked binaries somewhere. Later you pipe that list through uniq and
call dpkg -S on every entry. At the end, you sort out build-essential
stuff and have the desired list.
But such a tool has to be written yet... However, I admit that it
could be useful.
> Standard packages: dpkg-dev, lynx, make
>
> Now these should need listing, as they are not marked essential.
dpkg-dev and make are build-essential.
> But hey! debiandoc-sgml itself depends on sp, so I could optimise
> and not list sp. This would, however, be dangerous, as what happened
> if the dependencies (maybe not in this example, but elsewhere)
> changed? So I'll still list both of these.
That's exactly the thought expressed in policy: You should list
packages you call binaries of, but not their dependencies.
> Firstly, that if we are now demanding build-time dependencies, we
> are asking maintainers to do a *lot* of work. (This took me about 2
> hours, maybe a little bit more.) We ought to think of a better way
> of performing this task if we want maintainers to take it seriously.
See above: I guess you've picked a complicated case, and second such a
tool like mentioned above would be useful.
> Thirdly, of the packages listed, dpkg-dev and make are needed by
> every package build, so should not be needed to be listed. I wonder
> whether we can have a tag "Build-Essential: yes" for a small number
> of packages which are assumed to be present on any builder, and that
> do not need to be listed?
(Proposed) policy says that such build-essential packages exist and
defines them indirectly. (See other discussions here on the list.)
> Finally, a small point. It may be worth stating that if a package is
> required to satisfy an (install-time) dependency of a listed
> dependency, then it does not need to be listed itself. Although,
> having said this, I think this is obvious.
Expressed in the wording of the proposal already...
Roman
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