Hello, On Wed 10 May 2023 at 11:47PM +02, Ansgar wrote: > Dear ctte, please consider overruling the dpkg maintainer to include > the patch from #994388[1]. Currently dpkg contains code to emit the merged-/usr warning, that's dead code on Debian, but which becomes active when packages from the Debian archive are copied unmodified into derivatives. The heart of the issue is how dpkg is a native package. What we're talking about is not the Debian system, but the Debian archive as it exists independently of the Debian system. dpkg has an upstream existence that's independent of Debian, and it's perfectly legitimate for that version of dpkg to emit the warning. The problem here might be caused by how the Debian archive is implicitly being used to distribute upstream dpkg. This is not in itself a problem -- we distribute a lot of stuff in source packages that does not form part of the Debian system. But in this case, this distribution that's occurring might conflict with how Debian is seeking to provide a product not just to end users, but also to those building derivatives. One simple solution is for dpkg to become a non-native package, carrying Debian-specific patches to do things like remove the warning code. Guillem & the other dpkg maintainers: would that change be something you are willing to consider? It might forestall this and similar issues from becoming contentious. Having dpkg as a non-native package would reflect the reality, that we can celebrate, that dpkg has an upstream existence independent of Debian. -- Sean Whitton
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