Bug#1034428: unblock: vmdb2/0.27-1

[Helmut Grohne <helmut@subdivi.de>]

On Fri, May 05, 2023 at 07:00:16PM +0200, Cyril Brulebois wrote:
> Gunnar Wolf <gwolf@debian.org> (2023-04-14):
> > vmdb2 is a leaf package. The code changes are quite minor. While there
> > are several alternatives to vmdb2 in Debian, switching from one image
> > generating system to another might be quite heavy for the users.
> 
> Spotted by Helmut (cc-ed): that's not true (in either stable or unstable),
> since autopkgtest depends on it… and it seems that update would break it.

To be precise, Helmut Grohne rather than Helmut Geyer. ;)

> I'll let Helmut expand, and possibly formulate a plan.

autopkgtest-build-qemu uses vmdb2. In particular, when you pass a
non-native architecture, it uses vmdb2 with qemu-debootstrap. You can
trigger that using i386 on amd64 already. So you definitely need to
declare Breaks for the current version of autopkgtest in bookworm and
unstable until it is fixed to not use qemu-debootstrap.

Also sbuild-qemu is a direct reverse dependency of vmdb2. I haven't
looked deep there.

I think both should be tested before proceeding here and autopkgtest
definitely needs an upload to make it work.

So much for a leaf package... There is a reason for why the release team
tends to say "no": Experience.

Helmut