Re: Debhelper and /lib/systemd vs /usr/lib/systemd
Sam Hartman <hartmans@debian.org> writes:
> However, Simon has raised what I think is a credible argument that it
> is harmful to perform both / -> /usr transitions and to move files
> between packages in the same release.
> My take away from that is that it may be harmful to move a bunch of
> stuff from / -> /usr until we have a plan, and that maintainers should
> actively be discouraged from doing so.
> I think we should get people to hold off at least until we have a
> consensus on that point.
I haven't been following this thread in detail because I'm already
woefully behind in other things I promised to do (it's not been a
productive summer for Debian work), but for what it's worth and from what
little I have followed, I agree.
The way I'm currently thinking of it is that there are two possible
general approaches to the transition: a piecemeal transition of individual
packages and a flag-day transition of the whole system. There's a lot of
debate right now about the merits of those two proposals and I'm sure
there will be hybrid proposals, but this implies two key points. First,
we've not fully decided on our overall approach (my understanding of the
TC decision is that it didn't pin down the final details). And second, if
we are going to do a flag-day transition, *also* doing a piecemeal
transition of individual packages may be unnecessary now, may be harmful
now (as you pointed out in your message, which I trimmed just for brevity,
there are edge-case issues with dpkg behavior mentioned that may imply
that), and may be far easier as a cleanup step after the flag-day.
That implies that we should stop doing piecemeal transitions now until we
decide on whether or not we're doing a flag-day transition and, if we do
decide on that, work out the implications for when packages should
standardize on /usr paths (if indeed they will ever need to do so; I
assume that they probably will out of cleanliness if nothing else, but I'm
also not sure it's strictly needed).
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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