Helmut Grohne wrote... > The configure file in the netkit-ntalk is generated using confgen from > MCONFIG.in. However, the generator is missing. No package in unstable > contains said confgen tool. Thus configure cannot be regenerated after > fixing a bug. That's a violation of DFSG #2.
[ The applies to some 15 packages that have their origin in netkit ]
Now I'm not sure whether this is technically correct, and even if, I
don't think it's appropriate.
The generated file is a shell script after all, allowing simple
modification - unlike compiled binaries. Or: If there wasn't the
"This file was generated by confgen version 2." comment in it, you
probably wouldn't even have noticed it's generated.
Still you have a practical point as mentioned in #873085: The generated
configure has bugs, even some more (bashisms, reported outside Debian),
and it's way better to fix this in the generator than in some 15
packages.
It seems however the mentioned confgen program is lost in the void.
I've been looking around quite a lot, but no avail. So I've contacted
David A. Holland[1], asking for advice. As a plan B, I might as well
re-implement that confgen program and make it part of the build
process. But I'd do that only as a last resort only: At least some of
the packages have a significant popcon count, so RM isn't an option.
Christoph
[1] http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/dholland/computers/old-netkit.html
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