Bug#994388: dpkg currently warning about merged-usr systems

[Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>]

Hello Helmut,

On Thu 24 Mar 2022 at 02:49pm +01, Helmut Grohne wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 09:12:14AM +0100, Ansgar wrote:
>> Maybe it should be changed into a warning that non-merged-/usr systems
>> will not be supported in the future.  The `dpkg-fsys-usrunmess` program
>> should probably also include a warning that it will convert the system
>> into a state no longer supported by Debian in the future.
>
> What is supported is a bit subjective I fear. At this point, neither
> merged-/usr nor unmerged-/usr is supported well. Both are broken in one
> way or another and nobody steps up to fix the mess.

We should distinguish two senses of "supported".

There is the sense of what Debian-the-project supports.  That is
specified in the TC decision.  That is not subjective.

There is the sense of what Debian-the-archive-contents supports.  That
is indeed subjective just as you explain.  There exists disagreement
about whether the Ubuntu approach to implementing merged-/usr is adequate.

The difficulty is that Guillem's warning kind of refers to both.

-- 
Sean Whitton