Re: Adding Pre-Depends from linux-image packages to linux-base
Hi Ben,
On Sat, May 03, 2025 at 04:08:55PM +0200, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> I'm proposing to add a linux-run-hooks command to the linux-base package
> [1] that will then be used in all maintainer scripts of linux-image
> packages [2]. This requires upgrading the current Depends on linux-base
> to Pre-Depends.
I've looked into the relevant MRs with two questions on my mind.
1. Would the relevant packages be part of larger dependency chains where
those Pre-Depends could add undue complexity to an upgrade?
2. How do you handle postrm?
> Both packages are under kernel team maintenance, and linux-base has
> minimal dependencies (debconf | debconf-2.0). So I don't anticipate
> this causing any problems with upgrades.
Regarding the first question, I concur. Dependencies of linux-base are
sufficiently trivial to have a low chance of being late and reverse
dependencies are practically kernel images only. We expect to be able to
install and uninstall kernel images frequently, so there typically are
not that much reverse dependencies. From that point of view, I have no
concern.
Judging from the code, you are aware that presence of linux-base is not
a given during postrm. In the absence of linux-base, hook execution is
skipped with a message rather than having things fail. Arguably,
uninstalling linux-base is an unusual thing to do. Can you give some
argument why that skipping of postrm hooks (that didn't happen earlier)
is a good compromise?
Helmut
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