(Julian, can you join us in the discussion of bug #812521 ?) On Sun, 24 Jan 2016, Axel Beckert wrote: > /usr/share/doc/autotools-dev/README.Debian.gz states: > > Do NOT use dh-autoreconf and dh_autotools-dev_* helpers at the same > > time, dh-autoreconf takes care of updating config.sub and config.guess > > by itself. > > This is not entirely true and prevents people from applying fixes where > this may be necessary. > > Discussion of that topic and the according change in dh-autoreconf's > documentation: https://bugs.debian.org/698765
Hmm, IMO it would have been better if dh-autoreconf could ensure that config.sub/guess *are* always up-to-date... > So I suggest to change the above wording as follows: > > | In most cases you should not use dh-autoreconf and dh_autotools-dev_* > | helpers at the same time, since dh-autoreconf triggers the updating > | config.sub and config.guess by itself for most upstream build > | systems. There are though cases where the latter does not happen and > | dh-autoreconf and dh_autotools-dev_* helpers should be used > | together. See https://bugs.debian.org/698765 for details. Sure, I will update it... but really, all this stuff is rather sub-optimal. If I just update to the text you provided, eventually things will go out of sync again. How about this, instead, for the dh-autotools-dev docs: "In most cases you should not use dh-autoreconf and dh_autotools-dev_* helpers at the same time, as it can result in unpredictable behavior should both helpers attempt to update config.sub/config.guess. Refer to the dh-autoreconf documentation for details on the cases where both should be used". And dh-autoreconf can document whatever it can't handle (or, preferably, get enhanced so that both helpers are never needed at the same time). This way, things won't go out-of-sync again, and people won't be mislead by outdated documentation... it is never a good idea to document the same thing in two places, after all, unless you can ensure both are always going to be kept in sync. Julian, would that documentation update be OK? You can also consider this a wishlist request for dh-autoreconf to take care of any corner cases where using both helpers at the same time would be needed ;-) -- "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh
