build-dependency on universe package: python3-distutils-extra

[Andreas Hasenack]

Looks like landscape-client has another build dependency on a universe package, and this one is definitely not for tests.

Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 7), po-debconf, libdistro-info-perl,
               dh-python, python3-dev, python3-distutils-extra,
               lsb-release, gawk

andreas@nsnx:~$ rmadison python-distutils-extra
 python-distutils-extra | 2.32-2 | precise | source, all
 python-distutils-extra | 2.34-0ubuntu0.1 | precise-updates | source, all
 python-distutils-extra | 2.38-1build1 | trusty | source, all
 python-distutils-extra | 2.39-1 | xenial/universe | source, all
 python-distutils-extra | 2.40 | zesty/universe | source, all
 python-distutils-extra | 2.40 | artful/universe | source, all
 python-distutils-extra | 2.40 | bionic/universe | source, all

andreas@nsnx:~$ rmadison python3-distutils-extra
 python3-distutils-extra | 2.32-2 | precise/universe | all
 python3-distutils-extra | 2.34-0ubuntu0.1 | precise-updates/universe | all
 python3-distutils-extra | 2.38-1build1 | trusty | all
 python3-distutils-extra | 2.39-1 | xenial/universe | all
 python3-distutils-extra | 2.40 | zesty/universe | all
 python3-distutils-extra | 2.40 | artful/universe | all
 python3-distutils-extra | 2.40 | bionic/universe | all

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

We may be OK from xenial onwards: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2016-April/001179.html

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

But would be cool to determine if we really need this -extras package. python-distutils itself is in main.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

16:55 <ahasenack> rbasak: and one more thing for your queue, if you could: I'd like to know if having a build-dep on python3-distutils-extra (universe) for landscape-client (main) in bionic is ok: https://bugs.launchpad.net/landscape-client/+bug/1743562

I think this is fine. My reading of Steve's note is that as long as you don't have a runtime dependency (in which case the package would either be broken or get held up at component mismatches) and the build doesn't copy code (source or binary via a static link, etc) from universe into the binary package going into main, it's fine to build depend on a package in universe.

Without looking deeper python-distutils-extras certainly sounds like it fits into this category.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Thanks for your input. I think so too, it's like having a build-depends on make (to process the Makefile). python3-distutils-extras is used in setup.py only.