Towards a DEB_VENDOR policy
Starting with lenny, a new variable DEB_VENDOR is defined during the build process. It contains a (short) vendor name, to allow packages to build different binary packages for different distributions.
This option was discussed during Extremadura's Emdebian Worksession
This page shall serve as a place for discussing a policy for using this variable, and to collect ideas for the implementation.
Use cases
Ubuntu
- gcc defaults to "-fstack-protector"
- libc contains a copy of libssp (to ease bootstrapping the compiler)
- branding
emDebian
- smaller harddisk and memory footprint desired
- (most) documentation omitted
LinEX
(Unsorted) Ideas
- DEB_VENDOR can have similar effects to setting DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS, so a conflict resolution policy is required.
- Idea: DEB_VENDOR maps to a policy document, DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS lists derivations from that (empty DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS must give a compliant package).
- "Cross-Compilation" between vendors is difficult due to things like differing gcc defaults. Do we want to support that?
- In order to quickly bootstrap a derived distribution, fall back mechanisms need to be in place (i.e. a package that doesn't understand "ubuntu" needs to fall back to "debian").
- Derivation tree or DAG?