Package: usrmerge Version: 13 Severity: serious Control: block -1 by 860523 810158 759410 837928
While merged /usr seems to be the future and will likely be the default in buster, shipping the usrmerge package in stretch wouldn't bring real benefits to users while creating situations where the only proper solution for a user might be to reinstall. Anyone explitely using "debootstrap --merged-usr" should be aware that this is a non-default option, but just installing a package shouldn't result in errors like the following in a stable release: # apt-get install usrmerge ... # apt-get install ksh Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: libfile-find-rule-perl libnumber-compare-perl libtext-glob-perl Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them. The following additional packages will be installed: binfmt-support The following packages will be REMOVED: usrmerge The following NEW packages will be installed: binfmt-support ksh 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 950 kB of archives. After this operation, 3521 kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 binfmt-support amd64 2.1.6-2 [59.5 kB] Get:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 ksh amd64 93u+20120801-2+b1 [890 kB] Fetched 950 kB in 0s (1137 kB/s) E: Can not write log (Is /dev/pts mounted?) - posix_openpt (2: No such file or directory) (Reading database ... 10978 files and directories currently installed.) Removing usrmerge (13) ... Selecting previously unselected package binfmt-support. (Reading database ... 10972 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../binfmt-support_2.1.6-2_amd64.deb ... Unpacking binfmt-support (2.1.6-2) ... Selecting previously unselected package ksh. Preparing to unpack .../ksh_93u+20120801-2+b1_amd64.deb ... Unpacking ksh (93u+20120801-2+b1) ... Setting up binfmt-support (2.1.6-2) ... Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/binfmt-support.service -> /lib/systemd/system/binfmt-support.service. Running in chroot, ignoring request. Setting up ksh (93u+20120801-2+b1) ... update-alternatives: using /bin/ksh93 to provide /bin/ksh (ksh) in auto mode update-alternatives: error: unable to install '/usr/bin/ksh.dpkg-tmp' as '/usr/bin/ksh': No such file or directory dpkg: error processing package ksh (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2 Processing triggers for systemd (232-23) ... Errors were encountered while processing: ksh E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) # Additionally, there is also an unknown number of runtime bugs like #860523 where code makes path assumptions that break with merged /usr. And there is no good way to find these automatically, only a longer time of merged /usr as default in testing/unstable would find them. The worst part is that the merged /usr via "apt-get install usrmerge" is irreversible, and having to tell users of stable that they have to reinstall for reverting it would be a huge blow for the stable reputation of Debian.
