Yesterday, a new version of python-support has been uploaded. It now supports extensions in a way compatible with the stupid idea of building them for several versions at once (which is now, unfortunately, the policy). Furthermore, it allows to do it without cluttering the control file with incomprehensible (and unparseable) XC-Foo-Bar fields. You just need to set up a debian/pyversions file containing the list of supported versions, and, if you want to use dh_python for dependency generation, a debian/pycompat. Thanks a lot to Raphaël Hertzog for finding elegant solutions and introducing them in dh_python.

Joey Hess is complaining about the way things are handled in debhelper, and from his point of view this is perfectly understandable. We've all sucked on this matter, and we could uselessly argue about who is responsible for the mess, but the harm is already done. dh_python has become even more complicated than it already was, and now requires a supplementary helper script depending on the packaging tool. Fortunately we've managed to make it not too complicated for package maintainers, and Marc Dequènes' work on cdbs will do a lot in that matter.

Update: I removed any references about Andreas Barth's complaints on Planet Debian. Anyone encountering issues with python-support is welcome to report them in the BTS, which is the right place to track them.