• Bug#1041210: dpkg: vendor information should be read from /usr, not fro

    From Gioele Barabucci@1:229/2 to All on Sat Jul 15 19:50:02 2023
    XPost: linux.debian.bugs.dist
    From: [email protected]

    Package: dpkg
    Version: 1.21.22
    Usertags: conffiles-reduction

    Dear dpkg maintainer,

    currently files under /etc/dpkg/origin/ are used to store information
    about the distro vendor, for example its homepage or the URL of the bug tracker.

    It doesn't make sense for this information to be configurable by the end
    user. This information should thus be read from from `/usr` (for example `/usr/share/dpkg/origins/`) instead of `/etc/dpkg/origins/`. (Or in
    addition to, using the classic stateless logic.)

    This would also remove the need to ship an additional needless conffile
    in `base-files` (`/usr/share/dpkg/origins/debian` would then be shipped
    as a normal package file).

    Regards,

    --
    Gioele Barabucci

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
  • From Guillem Jover@1:229/2 to Gioele Barabucci on Sat Jul 22 14:20:02 2023
    XPost: linux.debian.bugs.dist
    From: [email protected]

    Control: reassign -1 dpkg-dev
    Control: retitle -1 dpkg-vendor: Support reading vendor info from /usr
    Control: severity -1 wishlist
    Control: block -1 by 695781

    On Sat, 2023-07-15 at 19:42:25 +0200, Gioele Barabucci wrote:
    Package: dpkg
    Version: 1.21.22
    Usertags: conffiles-reduction

    currently files under /etc/dpkg/origin/ are used to store information about the distro vendor, for example its homepage or the URL of the bug tracker.

    It doesn't make sense for this information to be configurable by the end user. This information should thus be read from from `/usr` (for example `/usr/share/dpkg/origins/`) instead of `/etc/dpkg/origins/`.

    While storing the origins or vendor information under /etc was
    probably a mistake at the time it got introduced, the problem now is
    that the pathname is part of its interface. And that interface in
    addition to the environment variables and the programmatic ones assume
    there's only a single pathname providing that information.

    This is compounded by the fact that the current origins or vendor
    information and structure might not be sufficient to describe all
    existing derivative practices, so before embarking on moving files
    around and all the breakage that would cause, this would need time
    spent on considering such cases to potentially handle all this in
    one go. For example see #695781.

    This would also remove the need to ship an additional needless conffile in `base-files` (`/usr/share/dpkg/origins/debian` would then be shipped as a normal package file).

    While the previous makes sense, I do not consider a conffile by itself
    being problematic TBH.

    Thanks,
    Guillem

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)