Re: Future of db5.3 - help needed

[Lucas Castro <lucas@gnuabordo.com.br>]

Em 03/10/2025 11:13, Chris Hofstaedtler escreveu:
> Hello fellow Debian developers,
>
> as you likely are aware, the db5.3 package ("Berkeley DB", short "bdb" 
> or just "db") is orphaned in Debian, and also upstream (Oracle) 
> changed the license for new versions. It is also a popular library for 
> "simple" databases. This leaves us with the problem that we ship this 
> to our users, but the future of it seems problematic and possibly 
> unsupportable.

I had been wondering the same question and why not upgrade to db18 somehow,

As I hadn't made a try on any software and upgrade to check the 
compatibility so I hadn't drive the question to the community,

but it's really good and important topic as I can see.

> I'm by no means an expert on this topic and I also cannot drive this, 
> but it seemed important enough to me to highlight this problem, and 
> ask you all for help.
Neither do I
> In 2021, Bastian Blank filed bug #987013 "Release goal proposal: 
> Remove Berkeley DB". As was rightfully noted, all packages using bdb 
> today need to make a plan. Some can hopefully just remove bdb support, 
> but others will need a migration plan for users.
>
> For packages storing user data in bdb format, it would seem like a 
> good idea to provide an upgrade path latest in forky.
>
> So, if you have a package using bdb, please see if you can remove 
> support during forky. If not, please see about supporting an upgrade 
> path to another database format during forky. Then hopefully db5.3 can 
> go away during the duke release cycle.
>
> Below is a dd-list of direct (build-)dependencies. Software using bdb 
> indirectly, f.e. via Perl, Python, PHP, Cobol bindings also needs to 
> be identified.
>
> Help on all these tasks would surely be appreciated. Feel free to mark 
> any bugs you file as blocking #1117120.
>
> Best,
> Chris
>
>
> Also see https://release.debian.org/transitions/html/db5.3-rm.html
>
>
> dd-list follows:
>
> Adrian Bunk <bunk@debian.org>
>    bogofilter
>
> Adrian Knoth <adi@drcomp.erfurt.thur.de>
>    jack-audio-connection-kit (U)
>    jackd2 (U)
>
> Afif Elghraoui <afif@debian.org>
>    gridengine (U)
>
> Alberto Fuentes <pajaro@gmail.com>
>    animals
>
> Alexander Zangerl <az@debian.org>
>    nmh
>
> Alexandre Mestiashvili <mestia@debian.org>
>    libpam-abl
>
> Amin Bandali <bandali@ubuntu.com>
>    evolution-data-server (U)
>
> Andreas Metzler <ametzler@debian.org>
>    exim4 (U)
>
> Andreas Rönnquist <gusnan@debian.org>
>    poedit (U)
>
> Anthony Prades <toony.debian@chezouam.net>
>    cyrus-imapd (U)
>
> APT Development Team <deity@lists.debian.org>
>    apt
>
> Aron Xu <aron@debian.org>
>    libpinyin (U)
>
> Asias He <asias@debian.org>
>    libpinyin (U)
>
> Barak A. Pearlmutter <bap@debian.org>
>    mit-scheme
>
> Bastian Germann <bage@debian.org>
>    monero (U)
>    reprepro
>
> Benjamin Drung <benjamin.drung@cloud.ionos.com>
>    bdbvu
>
> Bernhard Schmidt <berni@debian.org>
>    bind9 (U)
>
> Brian May <bam@debian.org>
>    heimdal
>
> ChangZhuo Chen (陳昌倬) <czchen@debian.org>
>    libpinyin (U)
>
> Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org>
>    diffoscope (U)
>
> Christoph Berg <myon@debian.org>
>    xastir (U)
>
> Christoph Egger <christoph@debian.org>
>    clisp (U)
>
> Christoph Martin <martin@uni-mainz.de>
>    sks
>
> Chrysostomos Nanakos <cnanakos@debian.org>
>    tcpstat
>
> Daniel Markstedt <daniel@mindani.net>
>    netatalk (U)
>
> Dave Hibberd <hibby@debian.org>
>    xastir (U)
>
> Dave Love <d.love@liverpool.ac.uk>
>    gridengine (U)
>
> David Bürgin <dbuergin@gluet.ch>
>    opendkim
>
> David Kalnischkies <donkult@debian.org>
>    apt (U)
>
> Debian Apache Maintainers <debian-apache@lists.debian.org>
>    apr-util
>
> Debian Common Lisp Team <debian-common-lisp@lists.debian.org>
>    clisp
>
> Debian Cryptocoin Team <team+cryptocoin@tracker.debian.org>
>    monero
>
> Debian Cyrus Team <team+cyrus@tracker.debian.org>
>    cyrus-imapd
>    cyrus-sasl2
>
> Debian DNS Team <team+dns@tracker.debian.org>
>    bind9
>
> Debian FreeIPA Team <pkg-freeipa-devel@alioth-lists.debian.net>
>    389-ds-base
>
> Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>
>    evolution-data-server
>
> Debian Hamradio Maintainers <debian-hams@lists.debian.org>
>    xastir
>
> Debian HPC Team <debian-hpc@lists.debian.org>
>    gridengine
>
> Debian Input Method Team <debian-input-method@lists.debian.org>
>    libpinyin
>
> Debian Kernel Team <debian-kernel@lists.debian.org>
>    iproute2
>
> Debian l10n developers <debian-l10n-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>
>    poedit
>
> Debian Libvirt Maintainers 
> <pkg-libvirt-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>
>    libguestfs
>
> Debian Multimedia Maintainers <debian-multimedia@lists.debian.org>
>    jack-audio-connection-kit
>    jackd2
>
> Debian Netatalk team <pkg-netatalk-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>
>    netatalk
>
> Debian PHP Maintainers <team+pkg-php@tracker.debian.org>
>    php8.4
>
> Debian Postfix Team <team+postfix@tracker.debian.org>
>    postfix
>
> Debian QA Group <packages@qa.debian.org>
>    bmf
>    c-icap
>    c-icap-modules
>    fsvs
>    hpsockd
>    libnss-db
>    librcc
>    moc
>    nss-updatedb
>    python-bsddb3
>    redland
>    sendmail
>    spamprobe
>    wvstreams
>
> Debian Security Tools <team+pkg-security@tracker.debian.org>
>    bruteforce-wallet
>    dsniff
>
> Debian TTS Team <tts-project@alioth-lists.debian.net>
>    freespeech
>    rulex
>
> Debian VoIP Team <pkg-voip-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>
>    kamailio
>
> Debian XMPP Maintainers <pkg-xmpp-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>
>    jabberd2
>
> Dmitry Smirnov <onlyjob@debian.org>
>    litecoin
>
> Dominic Hargreaves <dom@earth.li>
>    perl (U)
>
> Dominik George <nik@naturalnet.de>
>    heimdal (U)
>
> Dovecot Maintainers <dovecot@packages.debian.org>
>    dovecot
>
> Exim4 Maintainers <pkg-exim4-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>
>    exim4
>
> Felipe Augusto van de Wiel (faw) <faw@debian.org>
>    webalizer (U)
>
> Francisco Vilmar Cardoso Ruviaro <vilmar@debian.org>
>    bruteforce-wallet (U)
>
> Free Ekanayaka <freee@debian.org>
>    jack-audio-connection-kit (U)
>
> Gianfranco Costamagna <locutusofborg@debian.org>
>    poedit (U)
>
> Guido Günther <agx@sigxcpu.org>
>    libguestfs (U)
>    libpam-ccreds
>
> Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>
>    cyrus-imapd (U)
>
> Hilko Bengen <bengen@debian.org>
>    libguestfs (U)
>
> Holger Levsen <holger@debian.org>
>    diffoscope (U)
>
> Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
>    vacation (U)
>
> Igor B. Poretsky <poretsky@mlbox.ru>
>    freespeech (U)
>    rulex (U)
>
> Ileana Dumitrescu <ileanadumitrescu95@gmail.com>
>    boxbackup
>
> James McCoy <jamessan@debian.org>
>    subversion
>
> Jeremy Bícha <jbicha@ubuntu.com>
>    evolution-data-server (U)
>
> Joachim Wiedorn <joodebian@joonet.de>
>    squidguard
>
> Jonas Smedegaard <dr@jones.dk>
>    jack-audio-connection-kit (U)
>    netatalk (U)
>
> Jonathan McDowell <noodles@earth.li>
>    onak
>
> Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org>
>    mailutils
>
> Julian Andres Klode <jak@debian.org>
>    apt (U)
>
> Julien Viard de Galbert <julien@vdg.blogsite.org>
>    webalizer
>
> Junichi Uekawa <dancer@debian.org>
>    jack-audio-connection-kit (U)
>
> LaMont Jones <lamont@debian.org>
>    postfix (U)
>
> Laszlo Kajan <lkajan@debian.org>
>    gridengine (U)
>
> Laurent Bigonville <bigon@debian.org>
>    evolution-data-server (U)
>
> Lev Lamberov <dogsleg@debian.org>
>    swi-prolog
>
> Lior Kaplan <kaplan@debian.org>
>    php8.4 (U)
>
> Luca Boccassi <bluca@debian.org>
>    iproute2 (U)
>
> Lukas Schwaighofer <lukas@schwaighofer.name>
>    dsniff (U)
>
> Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>
>    inn2
>    libberkeleydb-perl
>
> Marco Trevisan (Treviño) <marco@ubuntu.com>
>    evolution-data-server (U)
>
> Marcos Fouces <marcos@debian.org>
>    dsniff (U)
>
> Mark Brown <broonie@debian.org>
>    xemacs21
>
> Mark Hymers <mhy@debian.org>
>    gridengine (U)
>
> Marvin Stark <marv@der-marv.de>
>    syrep
>
> Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org>
>    python3.13
>    python3.14
>
> Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>
>    diffoscope (U)
>
> Michael Banck <mbanck@debian.org>
>    gridengine (U)
>
> Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru>
>    postfix (U)
>
> Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org>
>    apt (U)
>
> Nicolas Mora <babelouest@debian.org>
>    libical3
>
> NIIBE Yutaka <gniibe@fsij.org>
>    chise-base
>
> Niko Tyni <ntyni@debian.org>
>    perl
>
> Noah Meyerhans <noahm@debian.org>
>    dovecot (U)
>
> Ondřej Surý <ondrej@debian.org>
>    bind9 (U)
>    cyrus-imapd (U)
>    cyrus-sasl2 (U)
>    php8.4 (U)
>
> Patrick Matthäi <pmatthaei@debian.org>
>    glusterfs
>
> Peter Van Eynde <pvaneynd@debian.org>
>    clisp (U)
>
> Phil Brooke <pjb@debian.org>
>    vacation
>
> Pierre-Elliott Bécue <peb@debian.org>
>    isync
>
> Reinhard Tartler <siretart@tauware.de>
>    jack-audio-connection-kit (U)
>    jackd2 (U)
>
> Reproducible builds folks <reproducible-builds@lists.alioth.debian.org>
>    diffoscope
>
> Ricardo Mones <mones@debian.org>
>    libetpan
>
> Richard Jones <rjones@redhat.com>
>    libguestfs (U)
>
> Ryan Kavanagh <rak@debian.org>
>    opensmtpd
>
> Sam Hartman <hartmans@debian.org>
>    pam
>
> Scott Kitterman <scott@kitterman.com>
>    postfix (U)
>
> Simon Horman <horms@debian.org>
>    perdition
>
> Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org>
>    jabberd2 (U)
>
> Stefan Fritsch <sf@debian.org>
>    apr-util (U)
>
> Stefano Rivera <stefanor@debian.org>
>    python3.13 (U)
>    python3.14 (U)
>
> Steve McIntyre <93sam@debian.org>
>    jigdo
>
> Tatsuya Kinoshita <tats@debian.org>
>    skksearch
>    skktools
>
> Thorsten Alteholz <debian@alteholz.de>
>    gnucobol3
>    gnucobol4
>
> Timo Aaltonen <tjaalton@debian.org>
>    389-ds-base (U)
>
> Tobias Heider <me@tobhe.de>
>    nvi
>
> Victor Seva <vseva@debian.org>
>    kamailio (U)
>
> Yadd <yadd@debian.org>
>    cyrus-imapd (U)
>
> YunQiang Su <syq@debian.org>
>    libpinyin (U)
Regards,

Lucas Castro.

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