debian/changelog

+gdal (2.3.1+dfsg-2) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
+
+  * Disable PIE for older ubuntu releases, PIE
+    works correctly with cosmic+ releases.
+
+ -- Gianfranco Costamagna <locutusofborg@debian.org>  Fri, 29 Jun 2018 18:13:09 +0200
+
 gdal (2.3.1+dfsg-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * New upstream release.

debian/control

@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 9.20160114),
                libxerces-c-dev,
                libxml2-dev,
                libzstd-dev,
+               lsb-release,
                netcdf-bin,
                patch,
                python-all-dev (>= 2.6.6-3~),

debian/rules

@@ -13,10 +13,13 @@ export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS=hardening=+all
 
 # Disable PIE on Ubuntu where it's still problematic
 VENDOR_DERIVES_FROM_UBUNTU ?= $(shell dpkg-vendor --derives-from Ubuntu && echo yes)
+DISTRIBUTION_RELEASE       := $(shell lsb_release -cs)
 
 ifeq ($(VENDOR_DERIVES_FROM_UBUNTU),yes)
+  ifneq (,$(filter $(DISTRIBUTION_RELEASE),trusty xenial artful bionic))
     export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS=hardening=+all,-pie
   endif
+endif
 
 include /usr/share/dpkg/pkg-info.mk