Source: dpkg Severity: normal Dear Maintainer,
while running autopkgtests for dpkg, for Debian LTS bullseye, on debusine.debian.net, I noticed that `test-func-root` failed [1]. The issue is that `mknod` doesn't work in the test environment: debusine.debian.net runs autopkgtest with the Incus-LXC backend, and one can't create devices in this environment. In contrast, this test passes on ci.debian.net, which runs autopkgtest with the plain LXC backend. However that won't last, ci.debian.net will switch to Incus-LXC at some point in the future (before forky is out). I opened a issue to discuss this with the support team behind debusine.debian.net at [2]. Antonio chimed in regarding ci.debian.net, saying: > Yes, ci.debian.net currently uses privileged containers, > and that will not be the case very soon. > > "Interacting with the kernel", of which mknod is an > example of, is already the main documented use case > for the "isolation-machine" restriction. The fact that > it works today is an accident, not by design. So it seems to me that dpkg should do one of these: Option 1 Add isolation-machine restriction for this test, and coordinate with ci.debian.net so that dpkg is added to the list of packages that are allowed to run on a VM backend. It also means that for architectures that don't provide a VM backend, the test will be skipped -- is that acceptable? Option 2 Do not conflate "needs-root" with "I can create device", which is not necessarily true. The test suite could be adjusted to check whether it's possible to create a device, and if it's not possible, skip those few tests that need this capability. I can provide a patch for Option 2 if you're interested. Best, Arnaud -- [1]: https://debusine.debian.net/debian/developers/artifact/4117393/ [2]: https://salsa.debian.org/freexian-team/debusine.debian.net/support/-/work_items/19
