re: dpkg: support installing M-A:same packages with different binNMU version

[Wookey <wookey@wookware.org>]

What is the current thinking on this for Jessie? I presume that at
this stage it is not going to be implemented so running lots of
binNMUs, or no-change sourceful upload to syncronise all arches is the
only fix available in that timeframe?

Does anyone know of problems that comparison of the source version
would actually cause? This seems to me to be the right way to deal
with this problem, but I don't claim any particular insight. Is the
worry just 'unforseen side-effects in complex code'? Syncronisation
with apt?

This issue is a real problem because of the way the binNMUs are
heavily using the build infrastructure for new port uploads (so after
adding two ports farily recently, lots of packages are out of sync).

There is now a handy jenkins job which tracks the size of the issue:
https://jenkins.debian.net/view/qa.debian.org/job/udd_jessie_multiarch_versionskew
(currently 266 source packages)

<aside>
Note that the non-unstable buildd overview pages ignore binNMUs when showing versions, so:
https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=xz-utils&suite=unstable  
shows binNMUs, but
https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=xz-utils&suite=jessie
doesn't.

You have to go to this page to find out what is really there:
https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=default&section=all&arch=any&searchon=names&keywords=xz-utils

I presume this is a bug, it's certainly confusing.
</aside>

So, are the dpkg maintainers minded to try and fix this for Jessie?
(or should I schedule piles of rebuilds)
are the dpkg maintainers minded to fix this for Stretch?
or are there any other proposed fixes on the table?

I do think we need to do something about this.

Currently the binNMU for packages producing MA:same packages is
pointless as it just means that someone has to come along later and
rebuild all the other arches to match. Until this is fixed in dpkg (or
we invent some new mechanism for rebuilds without changing the version
number), packages which produce MA:same binarypkgs should always be
sourcefully uploaded.

Wookey
-- 
Principal hats:  Linaro, Debian, Wookware, ARM
http://wookware.org/