Re: RFC: Replacing vim-tiny with nano in essential packages
On 3/17/20 8:34 PM, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> Ansgar dijo [Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 09:49:49AM +0100]:
>> And Debian ships vim-tiny, not vim, as part of the minimal
>> installation. That the same source package also builds other versions
>> doesn't really matter for vim-tiny.
>>
>> The only problem you mentioned was vim-tiny (arch: any) depending on
>> vim-common (arch: all) and these sometimes getting out of sync on Debian
>> Ports. I don't think that is a good reason to switch editors and there
>> are other ways to work around that problem.
>
> Agree.
The vim maintainer himself would like to get rid of the vim-tiny package
and I'm not sure there is a compelling argument that you have to use a
particular vi implementation in a minimal environment.
I wouldn't have a problem with vim if the package didn't fail its
testsuite that often. While the last upload has helped a little, it's
still FTBFS on five architectures [1], three of them in Debian Ports
meaning I won't be able to build usable d-i images and several users
have asked me for updated images already.
>> But if we really wanted a minimal editor: `ed` is still there with an
>> Installed-Size: 116 kB and no external dependencies besides libc6. It
>> also works without fancy terminal features.
>
> Well, yes. But while mostly everybody who reads this will be
> moderately proficient with the basic subset of vi, I don't know
> anybody who'd know how to drive ed (I have done it, but I surely don't
> remember how to).
It's not about the size of the editor package but more about using an
editor which causes less build issues.
>> Or have debootstrap not install any editor. But if I remember correctly
>> that idea wasn't popular.
>
> I agree with those that would oppose. Having an editor handy is core
> to be able to get a Unix system out of many unexpected
> situations. Having an Unix system without an editor is IMO having a
> broken system. Could make sense for embedded targets... but nothing else.
I'm not arguing that, I just want to solve this particular problem.
Thanks,
Adrian
--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `' Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
`- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913
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