Apparently, dh7 fails to tell qmake the location of the source directory
when attempting an out-of-tree build:


[…]
dpkg-source: info: building polyphone in polyphone_2.2.0+dfsg0-1.dsc
 debian/rules binary
dh binary --sourcedir=sources -B
   dh_update_autotools_config -O--sourcedir=sources -O-B
   dh_autoreconf -O--sourcedir=sources -O-B
   dh_auto_configure -O--sourcedir=sources -O-B
        install -d /tmp/buildd/polyphone-2.2.0\+dfsg0/debian/.debhelper/generated/_source/home /tmp/buildd/polyphone-2.2.0\+dfsg0/debian/.debhelper/generated/_source/xdg-runtime-dir
        install -d obj-x86_64-linux-gnu
        cd obj-x86_64-linux-gnu && qmake -makefile "QMAKE_CFLAGS_RELEASE=-g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/tmp/buildd/polyphone-2.2.0+dfsg0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security  -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 " "QMAKE_CFLAGS_DEBUG=-g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/tmp/buildd/polyphone-2.2.0+dfsg0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security  -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 " "QMAKE_CXXFLAGS_RELEASE=-g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/tmp/buildd/polyphone-2.2.0+dfsg0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security  -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 " "QMAKE_CXXFLAGS_DEBUG=-g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/tmp/buildd/polyphone-2.2.0+dfsg0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security  -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 " "QMAKE_LFLAGS_RELEASE=-Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now -Wl,--as-needed" "QMAKE_LFLAGS_DEBUG=-Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now -Wl,--as-needed" QMAKE_STRIP=: PREFIX=/usr
Usage: /usr/lib/qt5/bin/qmake [mode] [options] [files]

QMake has two modes, one mode for generating project files based on
[…]


The qmake invocation syntax error message is somewhat misleading,
but looking at the invocation command line it becomes somewhat clearer.

Thorsten Glaser:

Interesting.  I am not sure out of source builds have ever been
supported by qmake (at least not correctly at any rate).  If you know
how to do it, then I am happy to look at fixing it.

~Niels

severity 964214 wishlist
tags 964214 + help
thanks

Hi Niels,

this is my first contact with qmake either, and the KDE/Qt
maintainers are happy it’s used less and less as well…

Sorry,
//mirabilos

On Sat, 4 Jul 2020 00:01:15 +0200 Niels Thykier wrote:
 > Thorsten Glaser:
 > > Package: libdebhelper-perl
 > > Version: 13.1
 > > Severity: normal
 > >
 > > Apparently, dh7 fails to tell qmake the location of the source
directory
 > > when attempting an out-of-tree build:
 > >
 > >
 > > […]
 > >
 > >
 > > The qmake invocation syntax error message is somewhat misleading,
 > > but looking at the invocation command line it becomes somewhat clearer.
 > >
 >
 > Interesting. I am not sure out of source builds have ever been
 > supported by qmake (at least not correctly at any rate). If you know
 > how to do it, then I am happy to look at fixing it.

Qmake does indeed support out of source builds (and for a long time -
you can find questions about it on the forums from 2010). You can check
a possible implementation of debhelper support for it in MR 125.

Regards

     Jiri Palecek