Re: merged /usr

[Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org>]

On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 03:20:05PM +0100, Simon McVittie wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Jul 2021 at 15:53:32 +0200, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> > I've suggested previously that we can easily make it RC for bookworm to
> > have a file outside a limited set of directories (/etc and /usr would be
> > OK, but notably /bin /lib and /sbin wouldn't be) that is not a symlink.
> > This is easy to detect with a lintian check and reasonably easy to
> > implement
> 
> I don't think that works in general without breaking some of Debian's
> axioms around Essential packages, as previously described here:
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=978636#118

Yes. Those arguments didn't convince me then, and they don't convince me
now.

A package in the essential set could work around the issue by moving a
file around and creating a necessary symlink in preinst rather than
shipping things. The set of Essential packages is small however, and
most packages can ship a compat symlink.

I didn't say we *should* ship compat symlinks; I said we should make
antyhing that is *not* a compat symlink in a particular set of
directories be RC.

> I have a longer mail written with possible ways forward, which I'm
> deliberately not sending right now, because the first step in all of these
> plans is "release Debian 11" and I don't want to distract the people who
> are making that happen (any more than has already happened).

This is so exhausting.

Yes, I know the release is close, and yes, I know that some people are
immensely busy working on that. I want to help them do so in any way I
can, but they're not *required* to read -devel, and "they might read
this and get distracted" seems like a pretty poor argument.

I'm not busy with the release. Are you? If not, you *can* actually come
up with an argument right now, and I promise not to insist on any
decision being made until the release happens, so that those
hypothetical people who *are* busy with the release can still chip in
later if they choose to do so.

Meanwhile, we can still discuss this.

-- 
     w@uter.{be,co.za}
wouter@{grep.be,fosdem.org,debian.org}