Your message dated Wed, 16 Sep 2026 11:34:25 +0000
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Bug#801065: fixed in developers-reference 14.16
has caused the Debian Bug report #801065,
regarding turn #904558 into advice - how postinst should deal with failures
to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact [email protected]
immediately.)
--
801065: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=801065
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact [email protected] with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: developers-reference
Version: 3.4.16
Severity: wishlist
As discussed on debian-devel starting at [1], I would like a comment
added to Section 6.4 "Best practices for maintainer scripts" that
recommends preventing the postinst script from returning failure when a
service fails to start.
A general rule of thumb is that if the corrective action would not
otherwise require re-running dpkg, then the postinst should behave as if
the installation succeeded.
An example of a case where postinst should succeed is if the admin,
prior to an upgrade, modified a configuration file which resulted in the
service being unable to restart during the upgrade.
Another example is if the service requires another resource to be
available that might be on another machine (e.g. a database).
The rational is that the failure has nothing to do with the installation
process or the contents of the .deb. The service might just as well
have failed on reboot even though it was correctly installed.
I will send a follow-up message that contains a condensed digest of the
thread beginning at [1].
...Marvin
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2015/09/msg00496.html
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Source: developers-reference
Source-Version: 14.16
Done: Holger Levsen <[email protected]>
We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
developers-reference, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.
A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.
Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed. If you
have further comments please address them to [email protected],
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.
Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Holger Levsen <[email protected]> (supplier of updated developers-reference
package)
(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing [email protected])
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512
Format: 1.8
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2026 13:14:16 +0200
Source: developers-reference
Architecture: source
Version: 14.16
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Developers Reference Maintainers <[email protected]>
Changed-By: Holger Levsen <[email protected]>
Closes: 801065 1147583
Changes:
developers-reference (14.16) unstable; urgency=medium
.
[ Serafeim (Serafi) Zanikolas ]
* best-pkging-practices: add expectations on postinst robustness.
Closes: #801065. Thanks to Holger for some help with this patch.
.
[ Holger Levsen ]
* Switch to debhelper 14, moving libjs-jquery, libjs-sphinxdoc and
sphinx-rtd-theme-common from recommends to depends.
* pkgs: fix sanitycheck reference, thanks Alper Nebi Yasak.
Closes: #1147583.
* Update all .po files for changed strings in the English original.
Checksums-Sha1:
a67e6aa7df9b72687706dfcf9db77b79076b15a7 2526 developers-reference_14.16.dsc
dede83a7fd4fd44e20b061c8ad9169a72c094942 584152
developers-reference_14.16.tar.xz
2b9b8d5535ec72903832e9b50da5cff0d3e5aabf 8712
developers-reference_14.16_source.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
a0a030493cc2773ed26727e06d7ebbe3baec7284e552ef91eac8acd390944f06 2526
developers-reference_14.16.dsc
2b10a090287a239713f94b6d0e76856fe77ce84b4f0e1ce8c08f9818ca806a3c 584152
developers-reference_14.16.tar.xz
f752cf1488c33a2c425e7d064b52a130338da07a328c20fb74625a74dd04eb1c 8712
developers-reference_14.16_source.buildinfo
Files:
37eb67f93756fa5f8cfe4121da9c87eb 2526 doc optional
developers-reference_14.16.dsc
273b464a5e2393e7c7d3afbeb26ef7a7 584152 doc optional
developers-reference_14.16.tar.xz
a8df21065f738f1f573ee2274a0c427a 8712 doc optional
developers-reference_14.16_source.buildinfo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----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=W9PE
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
pgp6JFrVvw9lt.pgp
Description: PGP signature
--- End Message ---
