On Sat, 2 Aug 2008, Steve Langasek wrote:

> Santiago, please see
> <http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/07/msg01028.html> for an
> explanation of why I've reassigned this bug; I think awk has been
> accidentally left outside the Essential set in a subtle way that has gone
> largely unnoticed, probably because no one uses awk in their preinst
> scripts.

Thanks a lot for the explanation.

My only fear is: Will debootstrap manage gracefully a base-files
package having a pre-depends: awk?

If yes, would the fix for this (a pre-depends: awk) be allowed in lenny?


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On 2008-08-02 22:28, Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 02, 2008 at 04:48:14PM +0000, Jörg Sommer wrote:
>> Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org> wrote:
>>> On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 09:27:10AM +0000, Jörg Sommer wrote:
[snip]

>>>> So, must these packages pre�depend on awk?
>
>>> No, but I think we may have a bug in base-files here that no one's ever
>>> noticed before.
>
>> Should I send a bug report for base-files?
>
> I've reassigned the existing bug report.

I've found another one:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=469552

I have already reassigned and merged accordingly. ;-)

Johannes

On Sun, Aug 03, 2008 at 01:32:48PM +0200, Santiago Vila wrote:
> On Sat, 2 Aug 2008, Steve Langasek wrote:

> > Santiago, please see
> > <http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/07/msg01028.html> for an
> > explanation of why I've reassigned this bug; I think awk has been
> > accidentally left outside the Essential set in a subtle way that has gone
> > largely unnoticed, probably because no one uses awk in their preinst
> > scripts.

> Thanks a lot for the explanation.

> My only fear is: Will debootstrap manage gracefully a base-files
> package having a pre-depends: awk?

Looking at the package relationships, I can't see any reason that it
wouldn't. But I wouldn't swear on this before someone tests it. (I think
unstable is an ok place to test this. :-)

> If yes, would the fix for this (a pre-depends: awk) be allowed in lenny?

Unless overridden by the release managers, I would give this a freeze
exception, yes.

Cheers,
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/
slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org


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Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org> writes:

> On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 12:30:44PM +0200, Manuel Prinz wrote:
>
>> Am Donnerstag, den 31.07.2008, 09:27 +0000 schrieb Jörg Sommer:
>> > recently, I've installed a new system with a minimal configuration. Then
>> > I've imported my old package selection with dpkg --set-selections and run
>> > apt-get dselect-upgrade. This replaced the mawk package by the gawk
>> > package and installed some X package at the same time.
>> > [...]
>> > But x11-common and many other X packages use awk in their maintainer
>> > scripts. [...]
>> > So, must these packages preâ??depend on awk?
>
>> No. They can rely on awk to be installed. awk is a dependency of package
>> base-files, which is essential. By that, awk is always installed and
>> x11-common can use awk in the maintainer scripts without the need to
>> declare a dependency.
>
> The dpkg upgrade log that Jörg showed clearly indicates that this is not the
> case; mawk was removed, other packages were installed, and then gawk was
> installed.

I think this is a misbehaviour in apt. It could first install gawk and
only then remove mawk. That way base-files would not have to be
broken/unconfigured inbetween.

It is not a bug as apt may do it this way. It just isn't the best
solution. I think apt should be more conservative when possible.

MfG
Goswin


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