GTK-rs code regeneration issues -- help wanted

Hi all,

I would appreciate some guidance with the best way forward regarding the 
code regeneration of GTK-rs in Debian.

Some background information:


GTK-rs provides rust bindings for the base (glib) and high-level (GTK4) 
C GTK libraries. These bindings are somewhat autogenerated.

The rough process upstream is like this:

"Random" gir files imported [0] -> codegenerator at a specific version 
[1] reads Gir.toml files -> automatically generates high- and low-level 
crates (e.g. gtk4-sys and gtk4). [2] -> published on crates.io from 
where we take the source code

The gstreamer-* and other (libadwaita, libshumate) bindings are 
generated the same way.

The gir files mentioned previously are just taken at a specific point in 
time and (sometimes) do not match the ones we have in unstable at that 
time. This used to work fine (more or less) since I started regenerating 
every affected source package that way. However, the current stack of 
bindings does not match the ones we have generated (partially because of 
time_t; fixed by upstream in the latest release). This leads to 
buildfailures [3] and possible memory corruption.


I would appreciate some help with as to how we can ensure this does not 
happen.

My thoughts so far:

1. Ship upstreams gir-files.

Advantages: Should fix all issues

Disadvantages: Would need to pass NEW; those are autogenerated from C 
themselves; code duplication

2. Adjust the current process so that "our" gir files are adjusted to 
match upstreams

Advantages: no need for an extra package

Disadvantages: A lot of work, need to check every gir file against 
upstreams somewhat and adjust accordingly

Would need some degree of automation and a significant amount of work

3. Do not regenerate: Not really an option; this would violate DFSG §2, 
see https://wiki.debian.org/AutoGeneratedFiles


Given the above difficulties I would appreciate some ideas as how to 
best resolve this problem. Upstream release cycle is ~twice a year (+ 
minor bugfix releases).

Let me know if you have any questions wrt the regeneration process.


[0] https://github.com/gtk-rs/gir-files/

[1] this is not an issue itself; the package in Debian is called 
gir-rust-code-generator

[2] I re-implemented upstreams process in d/rules, see for instance 
https://sources.debian.org/src/rust-libadwaita-sys/0.5.3-1/debian/rules/

[3] 
https://buildd.debian.org/status/fetch.php?pkg=gnome-snapshot&arch=amd64&ver=46.2-3&stamp=1713724614&raw=0


As GNOME is increasingly using gtk-rs to build their applications this 
will need resolving.


best,