Comment 2 for bug 2071468

just curious: are there any pointers to these discussions? It seems odd to design a format that has quoting issues from the beginning.

I don't like having a 99% solution, and skip stuff otherwise. Plus it's not just problematic for regular package builds, but also for debugging a package build. You have to set all these environment variables on your own, when you restart some part of a package build.

I see two ways to get around that:

 - a package build creates a build specific spec without relying on any environment variables. That would be a change in dpkg, plus passing the --package-metadata in the build flags.

 - the gcc and clang drivers insert the --package-metadata option on it's own, if it is not present, and if all the env vars are present. This would not need *any* changes in dpkg, just a simple local patch to the compiler drivers. In case of not having the env vars, it just would not be recorded, but not failing the build as it's currently the case.

Both options seem to be better than the current status.