2014-11-02 12:41 GMT+01:00 Michael Tokarev <[email protected]>: > > Obviuously not an operator error. There has been a dependency for > bridge-utils in the past, that depency has now been removed which causes > apt to mark bridge-utils as not needed when it clearly still is in use, as > it was on my installation. > > So what do you suggest? To keep old and long obsolete > dependencies as dependencies forever? > > I suggest that changes to packages that could break networking are at least documented. I have checked the changelog for qemu-kvm and I can't find any reference to bridge-utils being removed. There wasn't any info in listed changes during the upgrade either.
The only way to get the machine back on the network was to log on locally on the console. Not exactly an ideal situation if the machine is in a different location. > A rule of thumb is to see which packages are being removed > by autoremove, and verify if you still use any of them. Or > just don't use autoremove (it is not enabled by default). > > It was an old machine with a lot of updates being applied, the autoremove list was 92 packages long. Easy to miss a dependency package that you haven't manually installed. It could have been automatically replaced by a compatible package, how should I know that autoremove would break my system? > If you still disagree, please start discussion on debian-users > or open a bug against linux-general package. Because this is > how debian packaging system has always worked and - hopefully - > will continue working. It is not in any way a bug in qemu, > quite the contrary - it'd be a bug in qemu if it still listed > bridge-utils in dependencies while this package is actually > not used by it anymore. > I consider not documenting the removal of a dependency - leading to a possible removal of a package that could break networking - a bug. What you do with the filed bug is up to you. /Daniel
