Re: Bug#728356: /usr/bin/how-can-i-help:30: undefined method `home' for Dir:Class (NoMethodError)
On 31/10/13 at 10:31 +0100, Christophe Siraut wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 09:13:52AM +0100, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> > On 31/10/13 at 11:55 +0800, Paul Wise wrote:
> > > Package: how-can-i-help
> > > Version: 0.7
> > > Severity: serious
> > >
> > > how-can-i-help now crashes on startup:
> > >
> > > $ how-can-i-help
> > > /usr/bin/how-can-i-help:30: undefined method `home' for Dir:Class (NoMethodError)
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > That's because ruby1.8 misses Dir.home (it's 1.9+ -specific).
> >
> > This is clearly a bug in how-can-i-help, that I will solve by dropping
> > the requirement of Dir.home.
> >
> > But I wonder if we have really explored all the scenarios for the
> > upgrade to 1.9/2.0. For example, what if:
> > - user runs wheezy, installs ruby1.8, and how-can-i-help
> > - user upgrades to jessie. in jessie, ruby1.8 is removed, but user still
> > has it installed locally
> > - user upgrades how-can-i-help to a newer version
> >
> > If the new version of how-can-i-help still depends on ruby | ruby-interpreter,
> > the dependency is statisfied by the ruby1.8 package still installed locally.
> > however, how-can-i-help might not work with ruby1.8, and ruby1.8 is no
> > longer part of jessie, so it's not obvious as a maintainer that I should
> > test with it.
>
> I am no ruby guru but as debian defaults to 1.9 for wheezy and jessie, I
> do not understand why a wheezy+ system uses ruby1.8 by default, except
> if manually changed with update-alternatives. Should maintainer care
> when default interpreters are modified?
There are two problems:
(1) partial upgrades, even without update-alternatives tunings.
It's very well possible to upgrade how-can-i-help only; nothing in
the dependency fields prevents that.
(2) manual update-alternatives tunings. I think that the maintainer
should care about that.
> When is the default ruby
> interpreter updated on a sid intallation?
If there's a manual update-alternative tuning, never. (or: when ruby1.8
gets removed)
If there isn't, when the new ruby1.9.x/ruby2.0 package is installed, due
to higher alternative priority.
Lucas
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