> I don't understand why you'd ever run make distclean, ignoring errors or > not, if the Makefile doesn't have a distclean target. If the Makefile > doesn't have a distclean target, why wouldn't you just remove that line > from debian/rules? There is no mention of distclean target/call in Makefile and debian/rules. But lintian nevertheless produces a warning. This problem is rather political than technical. Many DDs conceive lintian messages too seriously and want lintian recommendations to be fulfilled before upload. For all that they do not accept the variant with overrides. If the distclean target is absent, then fulfillment of lintian recommendations leads to the necessity of making a patch on Makefile. And in the case if one can't manage to commit into upstream, then he must create a patch for every version. i.e. Instead of the usual work on bugs one is occupied with their possible creating ;) On the other hand it would be logically if lintian didn't create such recommendation in the case when Makefile didn't include distclean targets. It isn't too complex to define it even with the help of a one-string script (I've cited an example in the previous message).
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