On Tue, 2 Oct 2007, Robert Millan wrote: > On Sun, Sep 30, 2007 at 07:17:59PM -0500, Chris Lawrence wrote: > > On 9/30/07, Robert Millan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Package: base-files > > > Version: 4.0.1 > > > Severity: normal > > > > > > lsb-release README.Debian says: > > > > > > Distribution-specific information should be *separately provided* in > > > /etc/lsb-release; it is no longer provided in this package. It is my > > > hope that in Debian, this will be managed by the base-files > > > maintainer (who already maintains the debian_version file). > > > > > > If you agree, please add it here. Otherwise sort it out with Chris > > > (CCed). > > > > > > In either case, we *do* need a /etc/lsb-release. There's code out there > > > that depends on it. > > > > Note that /etc/lsb-release is not specified by the Linux Standard > > Base; only the lsb_release command is (and Debian's version of the > > lsb_release command doesn't require /etc/lsb-release to work, unless > > it's providing information about a derived distribution and not Debian > > proper). Any code that depends on the existence or content of > > /etc/lsb-release is IMHO broken. > > It's precisely useful when backporting packages from derived distributions. > > Ironicaly, some seem to rely on /etc/lsb-release for portability reasons.
I have very mixed feelings about this. On one hand, the current README.Debian for lsb-release seems to expect that base-files will incorporate the requested file. On the other hand, Chris himself seems to indicate that we don't really need the file, as it would only help code which is either buggy or doing weird things. Chris: Should I take your word that code that depends on /etc/lsb-release is broken, or your other word in README.Debian saying you expect this to be managed by base-files? If it's the latter and we don't really need /etc/lsb-release, I would reassign this back to lsb-release so that README.Debian is reworded appropriately. IMHO, if the only benefit for this is to backport packages from derived distributions, we might instead backport the same package from Debian, if it's a free software package. But if it's not, do we really care? Thanks. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
