Re: merged /usr considered harmful (was Re: Bits from the Technical Committee)

[Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>]

On Wed, 2021-07-14 at 19:54:56 +0000, Thorsten Glaser wrote:
> Sean Whitton dixit:
> >* #978636 move to merged-usr-only?
> >
> >  We were asked to decide whether or not Debian 'bookworm' should
> >  continue to support systems which are not using the merged-usr
> >  filesystem layout.  We decided that support should not continue beyond
> >  Debian 'bullseye'.
> 
> What? WHAT? ＷＨＡＴ？
> 
> >  The decision is captured here:
> >  <https://bugs.debian.org/978636#178>
> 
> No reason provided either. This stinks. I’m v̲e̲r̲y̲ disappointed.
> Debian is becoming untenable. Years ago, I had hoped it won’t.

I've been meaning to send a note about this for some time now, but
as I feel it keeps getting ignored, it always seems a bit pointless.

But in any case, given that merged-usr-via-aliased-dirs is not really
supported by dpkg anyway, it is broken by design [B], I have no
intention whatsoever to break any of my systems with such layout going
forward, I'm thus planning to spend any necessary volunteer time
implementing any fix, workaround or solution required to avoid having
to use it, in detriment of other Debian volunteer time. I already
started some time ago with dpkg-fsys-usrunmess(8), present already in
the upcoming bullseye release.

[B] <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/FAQ#Q:_Does_dpkg_support_merged-.2Fusr-via-aliased-dirs.3F>

Thanks,
Guillem