Bug#837060: debootstrap: Do not install packages of Priority:required for buildd variant

[Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>]

On Thu, Sep 08, 2016 at 07:40:15PM +0200, Sven Joachim wrote:


> | Setting up perl-base (5.22.2-5) ...
> | dpkg: error: --install needs at least one package archive file argument
> `----
> 
> Looking at the code in scripts/sid, it is "x_core_install mawk" which
> fails here.  The reason is that mawk has not been downloaded,
> debootstrap's limited dependency resolver cannot resolve base-files'
> pre-dependency on awk.
> 
> The good news is that with "--include=mawk" added to the commandline,
> debootstrap succeeds and does not include tzdata or lsb-base in the
> chroot. :-)
> 
> So changing base-files to Pre-depend on mawk | awk seems to be the only
> blocker here.  Would you like to file a blocking bug on base-files?

You don't need to change base-files for that.

Package awk is essential and virtual. The dependency of base-files on
awk is just to ensure that there is always an awk available (once that
you already have a running system), but it's not meant to tell
debootstrap which one is "the awk of preference".

debootstrap already knows that, and the proof is that it deliberately
installs "mawk" and no other awk implementation.

If we switch from installing required packages to installing just the
essential packages (which are a subset), we will miss mawk, so for all
purposes, since we are bootstrapping, you should treat mawk as if it
were essential.

Could you please try something like this?

  required="mawk $(get_debs Essential: yes)"

I think that should be more than enough.

Thanks.