Hello, On 21/08/2025 04:59, Santiago Vila wrote: > Thanks for the report. Your patch may look simple and innocent, but > every "parameterization" adds some complexity and the problem is that > we know how it starts, but we don't know how it can end. See #959471 > for an example of a similar request.
Thanks for your feedback, and pointer to another discussion. I see that, in #959471, Guillem aims at the definitive solution. I completely support his approach, from the point of view of a Debian derivative, it's just great. But of course it's a harder sell to accept his patch, because of reviewing the changes, and assessing how it will fare in the long run... While here I propose a change that is much lighter, and still provides a real benefit for derivatives. Let me also attach two patches, an implementation for the second approach I proposed, ie. changing the value of OSNAME from "GNU/Linux" to "Debian GNU/Linux". I find it a bit more elegant. > So, I'm keeping this open as wishlist because I have not decided yet > how much support I want to provide to forks (if any at all). Note that any derivative HAVE TO fork base-files, whether they like it or not. Because there's no clear path for how to fork and modify base-files, some derivatives don't do it right, so "Debian" is still hardcoded in some system files, instead of having been replaced with "<DerivativeName>". Or, when users of the derivative want to file a bug, it lands on bugs.debian.org, instead of landing on the bugtracker of the derivative. IMO it's a win for both Debian and its derivatives if base-files is easy to fork, so what Guillem proposes at #959471 makes lots of sense. But as you said, it adds complexity and it's a cost for the maintenance of the package, and that's at your appreciation. Thanks for your reading! Best, Arnaud
From 30fed3a9a275e1e9ffdb3f21f7b1bd0910dd1e21 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Arnaud Rebillout <[email protected]> Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2025 10:28:39 +0700 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Include 'Debian' in the OSNAME variable Thanks to this change, it's easier for a derivative to replace "Debian GNU/Linux" with eg. "Kali GNU/Linux". It only takes a change in debian/rules, instead of having to patch multiple files. Note that this change leads to a FTBFS, which is addressed in the next commit. --- debian/rules | 6 +++--- etc/issue | 2 +- etc/issue.net | 2 +- etc/os-release | 4 ++-- share/info.dir | 2 +- share/motd | 4 ++-- 6 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules index cd0157f..745bae6 100755 --- a/debian/rules +++ b/debian/rules @@ -2,12 +2,12 @@ include /usr/share/dpkg/architecture.mk -OSNAME = "GNU/`uname | sed -e 's/GNU\///'`" +OSNAME = "Debian GNU/`uname | sed -e 's/GNU\///'`" ifeq ($(DEB_HOST_GNU_SYSTEM),linux) - OSNAME=GNU/Linux + OSNAME = Debian GNU/Linux endif ifeq ($(DEB_HOST_GNU_SYSTEM),gnu) - OSNAME=GNU/Hurd + OSNAME = Debian GNU/Hurd endif VENDORFILE = debian diff --git a/etc/issue b/etc/issue index 9ed4526..e1d4fc0 100644 --- a/etc/issue +++ b/etc/issue @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@ -Debian #OSNAME# forky/sid \n \l +#OSNAME# forky/sid \n \l diff --git a/etc/issue.net b/etc/issue.net index 15ce5f7..0376583 100644 --- a/etc/issue.net +++ b/etc/issue.net @@ -1 +1 @@ -Debian #OSNAME# forky/sid +#OSNAME# forky/sid diff --git a/etc/os-release b/etc/os-release index 3887df6..3e15849 100644 --- a/etc/os-release +++ b/etc/os-release @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ -PRETTY_NAME="Debian #OSNAME# forky/sid" -NAME="Debian #OSNAME#" +PRETTY_NAME="#OSNAME# forky/sid" +NAME="#OSNAME#" VERSION_CODENAME=forky ID=debian HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"; diff --git a/share/info.dir b/share/info.dir index 550533d..0b2cfe3 100644 --- a/share/info.dir +++ b/share/info.dir @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ File: dir Node: Top This is the top of the INFO tree it. --- PLEASE ADD DOCUMENTATION TO THIS TREE. (See INFO topic first.) --- -In Debian #OSNAME#, Info `dir' entries are added with the command +In #OSNAME#, Info `dir' entries are added with the command `install-info'. Please refer to install-info(8) for usage details. * Menu: The list of major topics begins on the next line. diff --git a/share/motd b/share/motd index 0120913..6f48a66 100644 --- a/share/motd +++ b/share/motd @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ -The programs included with the Debian #OSNAME# system are free software; +The programs included with the #OSNAME# system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright. -Debian #OSNAME# comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent +#OSNAME# comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. -- 2.50.1
From 5a018833d7be9c5c5afc9af952c4b7530aa0d516 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Arnaud Rebillout <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2025 09:58:31 +0700 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Evaluate uname during variable definition Before this commit, the OSNAME variable was a static string, and in particular the uname command wasn't executed when the variable was defined. Instead it was executed during the target `override_dh_auto_install`. Which means that the line: sed -e "s&#OSNAME#&$(OSNAME)&g" share/motd Was turned into: sed -e "s&#OSNAME#&"GNU/`uname | sed -e 's/GNU\///'`"&g" share/motd Which works, as long as there is no space in the string: "GNU/`uname | sed -e 's/GNU\///'`" However that changed in previous commit, a space was added when OSNAME became: "Debian GNU/`uname | sed -e 's/GNU\///'`" Which lead to a FTBFS: sed -e "s&#OSNAME#&"Debian GNU/`uname | sed -e 's/GNU\///'`"&g" share/motd > debian/base-files/usr/share/base-files/motd sed: -e expression #1, char 17: unterminated `s' command make[1]: *** [debian/rules:49: override_dh_auto_install] Error 1 There are different ways to fix it. For example, we can adjust the sed commands in order to deal with a space in the OSNAME variable expansion. Or simply drop the double-quotes from the OSNAME variable definition, so the sed command becomes: sed -e "s&#OSNAME#&GNU/`uname | sed -e 's/GNU\///'`&g" share/motd Or another approach is to execute uname once and for all when the OSNAME variable is defined. I find it easier, so that's the approach I took in this commit. --- debian/rules | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules index 745bae6..93a05d2 100755 --- a/debian/rules +++ b/debian/rules @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ include /usr/share/dpkg/architecture.mk -OSNAME = "Debian GNU/`uname | sed -e 's/GNU\///'`" +OSNAME = Debian GNU/$(shell uname | sed -e 's/GNU\///') ifeq ($(DEB_HOST_GNU_SYSTEM),linux) OSNAME = Debian GNU/Linux endif -- 2.50.1
