Re: new pre-dependency: perl{,-base,-modules} -> dpkg (>= 1.17.17)

[Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>]

[ CCing debian-release. ]

Hi!

On Sun, 2015-01-18 at 20:12:55 +0200, Niko Tyni wrote:
> In order to fix trigger related wheezy->jessie upgrade failures in
> xfonts-traditional (#774844, cc'd), I intend to make the main perl
> binary packages (perl, perl-base, and perl-modules) Pre-Depend on dpkg
> (>= 1.17.17), which has this change:
> 
>   * Defer trigger processing if the package does not fulfill dependencies.
>     Closes: #671711
> 
> Together with making the jessie perl-modules and perl-base Break the
> wheezy perl, this should ensure that the xfonts-traditional trigger will
> not run when perl is in a broken state during upgrades.
> 
> Please see the #774844 bug log for details, and let me know if you have
> objections or other suggestions.

I've not looked into the details yet, but just to comment that there's
been talk about possibly reverting that fix, because in some error
situations it can get apt into an unrecoverable state (#774124). :(

Of course reverting that fix brings back all upgrade issues related
to trigger processing w/o the required dependencies. Which are
probably more, and easier to get into.

(I guess this just calls for both a fixed apt, and a dpkg that
workarounds any such situation.)

Thanks,
Guillem