Package: debootstrap
Version: 1.0.128+nmu2
Severity: important
Tags: patch
Dear maintainer:
Because Debian has decided that bookworm will have
usr-merge by default even for building packages,
I would expect usr-merge to be enabled by default
in all cases, including when using the buildd profile.
Currently, such thing does not happen.
I think the attached patch would fix this
(but I've not tested it).
A better approach would be to select --usr-merge
in the buildd profile when appropriate (i.e. bookworm
and above). (How feasible would this be?)
I am aware that the proposed patch (but not the "better approach")
may force some people to do some things differently.
However, let's compare the two scenarios:
A) If the patch is applied, then once that bookworm becomes stable:
- Those who want to build packages for stable the official way
do not have to do anything special. I think this is the category
of users that should be better supported.
- Those still running bullseye who want to build packages for
bullseye (using debootstrap from bullseye) do not have to do
anything special.
- Only people who want to build packages for bullseye from
bookworm would have to add --no-usr-merge by hand, and only
when using the buildd profile. I think this is a special case
and having to add an option by hand for such special case would
not be a big deal.
B) If the patch is not applied, then once that bookworm becomes stable:
- Those who want to build packages for stable the official way
should add --usr-merge by hand when calling debootstrap.
This option is *undocumented* in "debootstrap --help" (!).
Also, failure to add the --usr-merge option may result in packages
being misbuilt, or even failing to build at all. And this would
happen when building packages from stable to be installed in a
stable system.
- Those still running bullseye who want to build packages for
bullseye (using debootstrap from bullseye) do not have to do
anything special.
- Those who want to build packages for bullseye from bookworm
would not have to do anything special.
In summary: I think A is better default than B for bookworm, and
I believe it would be ok to change debootstrap default behaviour
before the release.
In either case, if debootstrap behaviour is not going to change
for bookworm, then option --usr-merge should be much better
documented, both in --help output and maybe in Release Notes.
Thanks.
--- a/functions
+++ b/functions
@@ -1367,7 +1367,7 @@ setup_dselect_method () {
# either installs the RTLD in a directory different from /lib or builds
# multilib library packages.
setup_merged_usr() {
- if doing_variant buildd && [ -z "$MERGED_USR" ]; then
+ if [ -z "$MERGED_USR" ]; then
MERGED_USR="no"
fi
