apache-devel builddeps joy

[bishop <bishop platypus bc ca>]

Folks,

I've been enjoying the challenge that was presented by the change of 
name from 'apache' to 'httpd', and hoping that competition for apache 
never materializes lest we have to change it again.  The more 
challenging of all the Unforeseen Consequences is when trying to 
reliably specify a build-dependency on the devel package.

Has anyone figured out a Decent way to reliably show a buildRequires for 
the apache httpd devel package on more than a few distro-releases? 
What's common?  Do folks depend on %_sbindir/apxs and hope that all 
distros package apxs into there (I forget which one doesn't), or do they 
build a baroque case statement that bails when rpmbuild checks for 
builddeps?

I've just had yat another frustrating time tonight trying to nail 
something down, and figured that someone *must* be doing it better.

Has anyone else seen this odd behaviour I'm seeing, where rpm (306-421) 
may be ignoring any kind of macro expansion when it builds build-deps or 
buildPreReqs?

Thanks for your time, for any help, and for this medium.

 - bish

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