Bug#931197: base-files: Include minor version in /etc/os-release

[Luca Boccassi]

On Mon, 15 Apr 2024 13:19:00 +0200 Santiago Vila 
wrote:
> severity 931197 normal
> thanks
> 
> I consider this to be a normal bug, and will try to discuss with
Release Managers
> to see if we can change it for trixie.

As the maintainer of the os-release spec: Ansgar is right, the current
setup is correct. Please do not add minor versions or patch versions to
VERSION_ID. That field is supposed to identify whether you are on
Bookworm or Bullseye or Trixie, not the minor patch levels in between.
It would be a bug to change this, and it would break A LOT of parsers
that expect just the Debian version.

What you can do, is add another field. The spec is intentionally
extensible and downstream can add any fields they like, just add a new
one prefixed with DEBIAN_ to namespace it, and then you can add
whatever you want in it. It could be DEBIAN_VERSION_FULL_ID=12.1 or
DEBIAN_VERSION_MINOR_ID=1 or any other combination.

-- 
Kind regards,
Luca Boccassi


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Bug#931197: base-files: Include minor version in /etc/os-release

[Santiago Vila]

severity 931197 normal
thanks

I consider this to be a normal bug, and will try to discuss with Release 
Managers
to see if we can change it for trixie.

Thanks.

Bug#931197: base-files: Include minor version in /etc/os-release

[Nils Breunese]

I would also appreciate it if VERSION_ID in /etc/os-release would contain the 
full version from /etc/debian_version. I collect information for a lot of 
different Kubernetes containers running all kinds of operating systems and 
versions, and I have found ID and VERSION_ID in /etc/os-release to be the most 
reliably available information across Linux distributions.

From Alpine Linux and RHEL I get versions like 3.14.3 and 8.4, but Debian only 
provides the major version, so for Debian containers this gives me less 
information. I could implement a custom check for /etc/debian_version and use 
that instead when present, but it would be nice to get this information from 
/etc/os-release directly.

Nils.

Bug#931197: base-files: Include minor version in /etc/os-release

[Sam Doran]

Santiago,

That is correct. Changing 'VERSION_ID=10' to 'VERSION_ID=10.1' in 
/etc/os-release is what I am asking.

---

Respectfully,

Sam Doran


> On Nov 8, 2019, at 06:16, Santiago Vila  wrote:
> 
> Hi.
> 
> Just to be sure: The proposed change would be *just* the VERSION_ID in
> /etc/os-release, which at this moment would become "10.1" instead of "10".
> Is this right?
> 
> I ask because we have a problem in lsb-release:
> 
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=939733
> 
> and changing /etc/os-release would be one possible way to fix the
> problem in lsb-release.
> 
> I'm also Cc:ing the lsb-maintainers at bug #939733.
> 
> After this is clarified, I'll ask release managers about their opinion.
> 
> Thanks.

Bug#931197: base-files: Include minor version in /etc/os-release

[Santiago Vila]

Hi.

Just to be sure: The proposed change would be *just* the VERSION_ID in
/etc/os-release, which at this moment would become "10.1" instead of "10".
Is this right?

I ask because we have a problem in lsb-release:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=939733

and changing /etc/os-release would be one possible way to fix the
problem in lsb-release.

I'm also Cc:ing the lsb-maintainers at bug #939733.

After this is clarified, I'll ask release managers about their opinion.

Thanks.

Bug#931197: base-files: Include minor version in /etc/os-release

[Sam Doran]

Santiago,

Thank you for the quick reply.

> OTOH, if this request is for the long term (maybe for Debian 11, bullseye), I 
> can ask Release Managers about their opinion on moving minor version to 
> /etc/os-release (this is definitely something I would prefer not to do 
> without hearing other's opinions).

I would like to request this be a long term change. I didn't realize Debian 10 
was so close to release and do not wish to disrupt that.

In my research on this issue, I found at least some in the Debian community 
that would like the minor version included in /etc/os-release[1].

This is also causing problems for Ansible users that do rely on minor version 
information[2]. We have users downgrading to previous versions of Ansible[3] as 
a result.

In the short term, I will implement my workaround. In the long term, I would 
appreciate if the Debian Release Managers would consider including the minor 
version in /etc/os-release.

Thank you so much.

---

Respectfully,

Sam Doran
Ansible Core

[1]: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/382537 

[2]: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/57463 

[3]: 
https://github.com/jyundt/ansible_playbooks/commit/5af0585c9e1c51fdd328cda1ca95f5baf865a309
 

Bug#931197: base-files: Include minor version in /etc/os-release

[Santiago Vila]

On Thu, Jun 27, 2019 at 06:58:06PM -0400, Sam Doran wrote:
> Package: base-files
> Version: 9.9+deb9u9
> Severity: minor
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> I am an Ansible Core maintainer and I would like to request that the
> minor verison information, e.g., 9.9, be included in /etc/os-release on
> Debian.
> 
> > What led up to the situaiton?
> 
> In Ansible, We recently switched to using the distro Python library for 
> parsing distribution
> version information. distro uses /etc/os-release as the main source of truth
> for information about a given distribution.
> 
> Previously, we were using platform.dist(), but this
> is now deprecated. With platform.dist(), we receieved the minor version
> information and our users found this information helpful.
> 
> With the switch to distro, the minor version of Debian is no longer returned 
> by
> default.
> 
> I have a workaround[1] to get minor version information using distro,
> but would prefer to have the minor version added to /etc/os-release in
> Debian if the maintainers of Debian feel the minor version number is valid 
> and/or
> supported.
> 
> We asked the CentOS maintainers[2] and they do not support point
> versions, so CentOS, omitting the minor version inforamition from
> /etc/os-release is appropirate.
> 
> I wanted to make the same request of the Debian maintainers.

Hi.

Our /etc/os-release file has been quite predictable for a long time
and I would consider not very likely that we will change it at this
point of the release cycle (we will release Debian 10 "buster" in
short, most probably in July).

As an Ansible user myself, sometimes I use ansible_distribution_major_version,
but I have never used the minor version in playbooks/roles, so I, for
one, would not consider such thing particularly interesting.

We support minor version information in /etc/debian_version,
and tools like reportbug take the full version from such file
so that it appears in bug reports.

So, if you absolutely need the minor version now, I would recommend
that you implement your workaround for now.

OTOH, if this request is for the long term (maybe for Debian 11, bullseye),
I can ask Release Managers about their opinion on moving minor version
to /etc/os-release (this is definitely something I would prefer not to do
without hearing other's opinions).

Thanks.

Bug#931197: base-files: Include minor version in /etc/os-release

[Sam Doran]

Package: base-files
Version: 9.9+deb9u9
Severity: minor

Dear Maintainer,

I am an Ansible Core maintainer and I would like to request that the
minor verison information, e.g., 9.9, be included in /etc/os-release on
Debian.

> What led up to the situaiton?

In Ansible, We recently switched to using the distro Python library for parsing 
distribution
version information. distro uses /etc/os-release as the main source of truth
for information about a given distribution.

Previously, we were using platform.dist(), but this
is now deprecated. With platform.dist(), we receieved the minor version
information and our users found this information helpful.

With the switch to distro, the minor version of Debian is no longer returned by
default.

I have a workaround[1] to get minor version information using distro,
but would prefer to have the minor version added to /etc/os-release in
Debian if the maintainers of Debian feel the minor version number is valid 
and/or
supported.

We asked the CentOS maintainers[2] and they do not support point
versions, so CentOS, omitting the minor version inforamition from
/etc/os-release is appropirate.

I wanted to make the same request of the Debian maintainers.

Thank you very much for your time.

---

Respectfully,

Sam Doran
Ansible Core


[1]: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/57814
[2]: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/50141#issuecomment-449452781



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.9
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.9.125-linuxkit (SMP w/6 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968), LANGUAGE=C 
(charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages base-files depends on:
ii  mawk [awk]  1.3.3-17+b3

base-files recommends no packages.

base-files suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information