I'm beginning to get things in shape, but some questions remain:
Henrik's debian/rules replaces the precompile.sh and smartlink that "make install" installs with versions from the build directory. Why? That "smartlink" is a binary executable, so it doesn't fit well in an "Architecture: all" package.
Does pike7.6-dev have to be "Architecture: all", though?
I don't know how the build process works in detail, so I can't help you here.
- Shouldn't GLU and GLUE be in pike7.6-gl?
Yes, that would be appropriate.
- A number of modules are left out (Ssleay, Java, Msql, PDF, Ffmpeg, Oracle, Gnome, DVB), obviously because the required libraries are unavailable in Debian. Can't the build system prevent these modules from being built in the first place?
Ssleay is obsolete. PDF, Ffmpeg and DVB I don't know if they are finished. Certainly not maintained. Java, Msql, Oracle and Gnome should probably be included somewhere. At the very least the Java module.
- I think more modules could have split out into separate packages in order to keep the dependencies of pike7.6-core down, but changing that now is difficult. Maybe it can be done in pike7.7 (pike7.8)?
We have traditionally favoured a big core to reduce the risk of Pike programs not running due to missing dependencies. Some sort of more active dependency tracking would be helpful.