Public bug reported: [Impact]
As reported at https://bugs.debian.org/873966 , a patch in config- package-dev 5.2 broke the transform functionality entirely. Any attempt to use transforms in a config package causes the build to fail with Can't use string ("/ARRAY(0x7fda137152e0)") as an ARRAY ref while "strict refs" in use at /usr/bin/dh_configpackage line 394. config-package-dev is a tool used as a build-dependency in private (third-party) Debian packages, so this causes those packages to FTBFS in artful when they built successfully in older releases. Bruno Maitre reported the problem and provided a patch to fix the bug, which has been incorporated into version 5.3 in Debian. [Test Case] config-package-dev ships one example that uses the transform functionality, but the version in 5.2 doesn't quite build right in artful (or in Debian unstable). So the easiest way is to grab the updated example from git: apt install config-package-dev debhelper lynx wget http://github.com/sipb/config-package-dev/archive/master.tar.gz tar xf master.tar.gz cd config-package-dev-master/examples/debhelper/debathena-transform-example-1.0 dpkg-buildpackage With config-package-dev 5.2, this will FTBFS at the "dh_configpackage" step; with the fixed version, the package will build. (If you're curious you can try dpkg -i'ing the resulting package, which will change lynx's home page to default to web.mit.edu.) [Regression Potential] I'm attaching two debdiffs to this bug. One backports version 5.4 from Debian unstable, which in addition to fixing this bug, fixes the examples to build on unstable, adds an autopkgtest to make sure the examples build, and makes no other code changes. The other just cherry- picks the one change. Arguably the regression potential for the autopkgtest version is less, since if tests pass that gives us confidence that the new version works on Ubuntu. (I have been doing my testing on Ubuntu.) I'd prefer this version, under the rules for SRUing an upstream microrelease of a package with a test suite. But it does change more; if you prefer the targeted fix that's fine with me too. The regression potential compared to 5.2 is extremely low, since 5.2 is definitely broken for packages that use transforms, and Bruno's patch only affects the code that handles transforms. I am also confident in the patch now that I have added autopkgtests and they pass on Debian unstable, stretch, and jessie (thanks, travis.debian.net!). Also, as noted the previous time we SRU'd config-package-dev (LP #899732), nothing in the Ubuntu or Debian archive build-depends on config-package-dev; it's a tool used by external packages. So even if there is a regression it will be low-severity. ** Affects: config-package-dev (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1725110 Title: config-package-dev 5.2 broke transforms To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/config-package-dev/+bug/1725110/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs