Bug#730870: pu: unifont -- RoM; NMU Version in Stable Undoes Ubuntu Fix

Adam,

On Sun, Dec 1, 2013 at 5:06 AM, Adam D. Barratt <adam@adam-barratt.org.uk> wrote:

On Sat, 2013-11-30 at 19:13 -0800, Paul Hardy wrote:

> On Sat, Nov 30, 2013 at 3:39 PM, Adam D. Barratt
> <adam@adam-barratt.org.uk> wrote:
> Control: tags -1 + moreinfo
>
> On Sat, 2013-11-30 at 07:59 -0700, unifoundry@unifoundry.com
> wrote:
> > I am requesting that the version of package Unifont in
> Testing, unifont
> > 1:5.1.20080914-4, be included in the upcoming Wheezy point
> release
> > primarily to align with Colin Watson's wishes for Ubuntu.
>
> What are the problems with the package in stable which this
> update would
> resolve? Aligning with Ubuntu's packaging is not a suitable
> reason for
> an update.
>
> * debian/control entries had incorrect Section fields because of
> revised policy ("x11" instead of the new "font" section); now they are
> correct.
>
That might be okay as part of an update, it's not enough on its own.

> * debian/control entries needed changes in dependencies to conform to
> new Debian Policy requirements.

See below.

> * I removed vestigial defoma artifacts from the package.
>
Are said artefacts actually causing any problems?

I don't know; I can only say that nobody has told me of any problems but their removal will make the potential issue moot.

>
> [...]
>
> > * Updated packaging to conform to the policy version
> suitable for Wheezy
> > Stable (3.9.4), notably for the revised font handling
> requirements.
>
> No, the version of Policy applicable to wheezy is 3.9.3.

> Okay. I built the package running the current Stable distribution
> with automatic updates, and that configuration uses Policy 3.9.4.

I'm not sure what you mean by "uses Policy 3.9.4", but:

$ dak ls debian-policy -s stable
debian-policy | 3.9.3.1 | stable | source, all

Somehow I had debian-policy 3.9.4; my error. Now I've re-installed debian-policy from the distribution and "dpkg -s debian-policy" shows version 3.9.3.1.

[...]
> However, there are things in the Stable version that do not comply
> with changes made by version 3.9.3 in regards to font handling.

As far as I can tell, 3.9.3 makes exactly 0 changes in regards to font
handling. Please be more explicit.

[...]

Could you point to which changes you're referring to? I may just need
more coffee, but checking through the upgrading checklist and changelog
isn't highlighting anything obvious since policy 3.5.5 (or maybe 3.7.0
at a push).

The additional "fonts" section was added before the Wheezy freeze. Section 2.4 of the Policy Manual v3.9.3.1 lists the debian/control sections, and "fonts" is listed there. This new section should be used instead of the older "x11" section as per my modifications in debian/control. The changelog for debian-policy doesn't mention when that section was added. It would have been in the Squeeze time frame. I had the exact announcement where the "fonts" section was introduced at one point, but can't find it now.

The Stable debian/control Section assignments are overridden during building, so as long as those overrides operate as expected there shouldn't be a problem.

In any case, whilst the xfonts-utils dependencies are technically
required, it is also in practice unlikely for their absence to be an
issue, due to e.g. xorg and xutils depending on the package.

To be explicit, I'm currently likely to nack this proposed update,
unless answers to the queries above reveal an issue I'm missing.

Regards,

Adam

If build overrides because of outdated debian/control section assignments and "safe" violations of updated dependency requirements in Policy are okay for Stable, and if there are no problems with defoma remnants in the packaging, and licensing changes reflected in Unstable suffice, then I guess there's no need to update Stable. But there's a version in Testing now that I think introduces minor changes to address all of those issues (versus the major changes that the next upload will introduce). I at least wanted to let you know about its availability and have the opportunity to update Stable. In any case, thanks for taking the time to respond to this so quickly.

Paul Hardy