On 2022-09-27 09:23:47 +0100, Matthew Vernon wrote: > Hi Zack, > > Thanks for bringing this to the committee; even if Sean is correct that we > won't act on this report, you've described the issues clearly and I think it > was worth bringing to our attention. > > On 26/09/2022 20:28, Zack Weinberg wrote: > > > It has been known for some time that dpkg has bugs which prevent it > > from correctly handling merged-/usr systems. #858331/#848622 is the > > only such bug (that I can find) that has actually been recorded in the > > BTS, and it *appears* to be a relatively harmless problem, affecting > > only dpkg-query output. > > This much is uncontroversial. > > > However, Simon Richter <s...@debian.org> showed in > > https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2021/08/msg00326.html that the > bad > > dpkg-query output is only the most obvious symptom of a much more > > serious problem, and that, under conditions that will plausibly occur > > in the archive after the release of bookworm (assuming all continues > > as presently planned) upgrading packages on a merged-/usr system can > > cause packaged files to disappear from the filesystem. The files most > > likely to be affected are the files that are currently packaged in > > /bin, /sbin, and /lib, including, just to mention a few, /bin/bash, > > /bin/systemd, and /lib/$ARCH/libc.so.6. Thus, the dpkg bugs can > > render systems unbootable on upgrade, and should be considered > > critical severity. > > This is a very useful message, and (at least to my mind) makes it clearer > how more serious problems might well occur. > > As Sean says, though, questions of what are and aren't RC bugs are typically > the domain of the release team, not the TC. > > I don't think you're asking us to revisit our decision on the approach taken > to merged-/usr; we don't generally return to a decision once made (and a GR > would normally be the approach to overturning a TC decision). Personally, I > think there are circumstances where we might (e.g. a convincing argument > that we missed something critical in our decision-making, or that > circumstances have changed sufficiently to warrant another look), but I > don't think we are in that situation here at the moment. > > I think the best way to proceed would be to open a bug describing the > problem that Simon outlines with RC severity; the relevant maintainers and > release team can then discuss how to resolve the issues and if they warrant > delaying the release or adjusting when we complete the transition. Obviously > those people might want to ask the TC for advice, but I think that would be > up to them at least in the first instance.
Is there a package in the archive that has this issue? If so, can you point me to a bug report? Cheers -- Sebastian Ramacher
