Repository navigation
Conversation
The source stanza has no Homepage field, so the project URL is missing from the binary packages and from anything reading the package metadata. Point it at the upstream repository, as the Debian packaging already does. Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5
libmuffin-dev ships the .gir files (usr/lib/*/muffin/*.gir) but never declares them, which lintian reports as gir-package-name-does-not-match because the package name does not follow the gir1.2-* convention. Only the field was missing: the substitution is filled in by dh_girepository, already run through dh-sequence-gir and the override in debian/rules. Same as the Debian packaging. Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5
The only thing the build needs from dbus is dbus-run-session, used to run the test suite in debian/rules, and that binary is shipped by dbus-daemon. Build-Depending on the dbus metapackage instead drags in the session and system bus setup as well, which is what the Debian packaging stopped doing to avoid blocking dbus-broker adoption (Debian bug #1122680). The package is available on every currently supported target: Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux Mint 22.x) already ships dbus-daemon 1.14.10, with both /usr/bin/dbus-daemon and /usr/bin/dbus-run-session in it. Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5
pkg-config is only a transitional package depending on pkgconf, so build-depending on it adds an indirection for nothing. The /usr/bin/pkg-config symlink meson looks for is shipped by pkgconf itself, so nothing changes for the build. Already the case on the oldest supported target: Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux Mint 22.x) has pkgconf 1.8.1 with pkg-config as a transitional package on top of it. The old >= 0.22 constraint goes away with the rename, being older than anything shipped anywhere by now. Same as the Debian packaging (commit 1e96ded1). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5
…ally used libgirepository1.0-dev is a non multi-arch metapackage pulling in the whole introspection stack, while the build only needs three parts of it: - libgirepository-1.0-dev (multi-arch) for girepository.h, included by src/core/main.c for g_irepository_prepend_search_path() - gir1.2-freedesktop-dev for the cairo-1.0, GL-1.0, xlib-2.0 and xfixes-4.0 GIR XML listed in the generate_gir() calls of src/, cogl/ and clutter/ - gir1.2-glib-2.0-dev for GObject-2.0 The gobject-introspection-1.0.pc used by meson comes from gobject-introspection, which is already a build dependency. All three packages are available on the oldest supported target, Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux Mint 22.x), where libgirepository1.0-dev is already nothing but a metapackage depending on them. The >= 0.9.12 constraint goes away as meaningless, libgirepository-1.0-dev existing only since 1.80. Same change as the Debian packaging (commit baa4cad6, Debian bug #1118900). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5
gnome-pkg-tools provides the dh_gnome and dh_gnome_clean helpers, the gnome dh sequence and the control.in/uploaders machinery of the GNOME team packaging. debian/rules runs plain "dh $@" without the gnome sequence and nothing else in debian/ uses it, so it was only installed for nothing. Same as the Debian packaging (commit b6dc4a9c). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
The API reference was built with gtk-doc by the old autotools build system (GTK_DOC_CHECK in configure.ac), which went away with the rebase onto mutter 3.36 and the switch to meson (commit 8599127). The meson build has no gtk-doc support at all and the muffin-doc package is long gone, so the build dependency is a leftover. Same as the Debian packaging (commit b6dc4a9c). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
Nothing in muffin uses PAM: no pam dependency() in the meson build and no PAM header or call anywhere in the sources, nor in the git history. The build dependency came in with the packaging imported from mutter in the rebase onto mutter 3.36 (commit 8599127) and has been dead weight since. Same as the Debian packaging (commit b6dc4a9c). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
The meson build looks for dependency('xtst'), used by clutter and by the
X11 backend (src/backends/x11/meta-virtual-input-device-x11.c includes
X11/extensions/XTest.h), while nothing uses the X Toolkit Intrinsics: no
Xt header nor xt dependency anywhere. So libxt-dev, there since the
initial packaging, is unused, and xtst.pc only got in transitively.
Replace one with the other, as xtst.pc is shipped by libxtst-dev,
available on the oldest supported target, Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux Mint
22.x).
Same as the Debian packaging (commit b6dc4a9c).
Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
The meson build requires dependency('atk') (atk_dep, used by clutter,
whose Cally accessibility API exposes ATK types in the public headers),
but libatk1.0-dev was not listed and only got in transitively through
libgtk-3-dev. List it explicitly, as already done in the Depends of
libmuffin-dev.
No version constraint: the meson minimum (>= 2.5.3) is far older than
anything shipped by now, the oldest supported target, Ubuntu 24.04
(Linux Mint 22.x), having 2.52.0.
Same as the Debian packaging (commit b6dc4a9c).
Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
The only thing the build needs from udev is udev.pc, read by meson
(dependency('udev')) to get udevdir, where 61-muffin.rules is installed.
udev.pc is shipped by systemd-dev, not by udev, already on the oldest
supported target, Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux Mint 22.x, systemd 255), and
systemd-dev is already a build dependency for exactly this reason since
commit 120ade8. Nothing else in the build or in the tests uses the udev
package.
Same as the Debian packaging, which uses systemd-dev instead of udev
(commit 0c5caa0b).
Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev is a transitional package depending on libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-dev (plus libgdk-pixbuf-xlib-2.0-dev, which muffin does not use), and libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-dev, the first alternative, is available on every supported target, starting from the oldest, Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux Mint 22.x). The fallback is never taken, so drop it, both from the build dependencies and from the Depends of libmuffin-dev. Same as the Debian packaging (commit f09a9445). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
With Wayland enabled, the generated muffin-cogl-0.pc (and the ones requiring it) lists wayland-server in Requires, as wayland_server_dep is part of cogl_pkg_deps, and the installed cogl/cogl-wayland-server.h includes wayland-server.h. Without libwayland-dev, building against libmuffin-dev fails at the pkg-config step unless something else pulls it in by chance. Same as the Debian packaging (commit 0c5caa0b). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
gbm is only a private dependency of libmuffin: libgbm_dep is added to muffin_pkg_private_deps, under have_native_backend, not to the muffin_pkg_deps that end up in the Requires of libmuffin-0.pc, and gbm.h is only included by headers of src/backends/native/, which are not installed (only src/meta/ headers are). Users of libmuffin-dev never need the gbm headers or .pc, so the dependency only drags in an unneeded package. libgbm-dev stays a build dependency, as the native backend needs it. It had already been dropped from libmuffin-dev in commit a0ca0ec, and came back in commit bc10efe together with the build dependency when Wayland support was restored, while the native backend part of the pkg-config dependencies has not changed since the rebase onto mutter 3.36. The Debian packaging never had it in the Depends of libmuffin-dev. Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
gir1.2-muffin-3.0 was renamed to gir1.2-meta-muffin-0.0 in 2016, in time for muffin 3.0 (commit 0ba1d74), ten years and many releases ago. No system still upgradable to the current version can have the old package installed: the oldest supported target, Linux Mint 22.x, is only reachable from Linux Mint 21.x, which has never shipped it. So the Breaks/Replaces no longer has any effect. Same as the Debian packaging, which does not have it. Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
The Breaks: apparmor (<< 2.13.3-5~) came along with the libmutter packaging imported in the rebase onto mutter 3.36 (commit 8599127, restored in commit da49bc3 after the packaging rework). That apparmor version is long gone: the oldest supported target, Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux Mint 22.x), ships apparmor 4.0.1, so the relation can never be triggered anymore. Same as the Debian packaging, which does not have it. Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
debian/rules relies on DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS, DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH, DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE and DEB_HOST_ARCH being exported by dpkg-buildpackage. When it is invoked directly (e.g. fakeroot debian/rules binary) they are empty: the Linux check fails, so Wayland and the native backend are disabled and dh_makeshlibs fails on the missing symbols, and dh_girepository/dh_shlibdeps get /usr/lib//muffin. /usr/share/dpkg/architecture.mk sets them only when not already defined, so nothing changes for dpkg-buildpackage builds. It is shipped by dpkg-dev on every supported target, starting from the oldest, Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux Mint 22.x, dpkg-dev 1.22.6). Same as the Debian packaging (commit 2044200c). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
The build system is meson: there is no configure.ac or configure.in in the tree since the switch away from autotools, so dh_autoreconf exits right away without doing anything (it checks for them first), with or without --as-needed. The override, added back when muffin used autotools (commit 82057b7), is dead code. Same as the Debian packaging (commit cbe850df). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
…flag The toolchain already links with --as-needed by default: on the oldest supported target, Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux Mint 22.x), the gcc 13 specs pass --as-needed to the linker, as Ubuntu has done for a long time and Debian since bullseye. Passing it again is redundant (lintian: debian-rules-uses-as-needed-linker-flag). -Wl,-O1 stays. Same as the Debian packaging (commit 9bd0ae85). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
Set the priority of the x-window-manager alternative to 90, as computed
with the formula of Debian Policy 11.8.4 ("Packages providing a window
manager"): start with 40, add 40 for compliance with the Window Manager
Specification (EWMH/NetWM), and add 10 if the window manager permits the
X session to be restarted with a different window manager without
killing the X server.
muffin satisfies all three criteria:
- it is EWMH compliant (extensive _NET_WM_* support in the codebase)
- it supports --replace and can itself be replaced by another window
manager without killing X, through the WM_Sn selection mechanism
The previous value of 60 came with the packaging imported from mutter in
the rebase onto mutter 3.36 (commit 8599127) and does not match the
formula.
Same as the Debian packaging (commit de7e1880).
Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
The file is a 2009 note from the Debian mutter packaging, carried over since the initial packaging: it describes the Mutter compositor, GNOME Shell and how to enable compositing through the /apps/mutter/general/compositing_manager gconf key. None of that applies to muffin: compositing is always on, there is no such setting and gconf is long gone. Being a generic debian/README.Debian, dh_installdocs also ships it in the first binary package of debian/control, gir1.2-meta-muffin-0.0, where it makes even less sense. Same as the Debian packaging, which removed it in 2012 (commit f026c1cf). Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
Take the file as is from the Debian packaging, where it is kept up to date: - update the years of the mutter authors and Red Hat (2024) and of Robert Mader (2021), and add the missing copyright holders: Endless, SUSE, Linux Mint, Jonas Dreßler, Sebastian Wick and Giovanni Campagna (Debian commit 29102baf) - follow the rename of src/x11/mutter-Xatomtype.h to src/x11/muffin-Xatomtype.h done in commit 4ad9aae (Debian commit 05742361) - drop debian/* from the Files: * paragraph, as * already matches it (Debian commit 029c03a9) Every Files: pattern matches at least one file of the current tree. Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-opus-5-5
Fantu
force-pushed
the
debian-packaging-improvements
branch
from
October 3, 2026 10:12
a03c3b9 to
d50eb37
Compare
Fantu
marked this pull request as ready for review
October 3, 2026 14:14
Contributor
Author
|
@mtwebster There are some other changes, including a few I just made on Debian while checking things here, that I could apply. Would you prefer to merge up to this part first, and then I can handle the rest later, so we don't have too many changes bundled together? |
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
1 participant
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
I don't have time to complete merging improvements from Debian (if compatible with mint 22 and lmde 7) and test today, so I open as draft for now