Andreas Metzler dixit: >1. Make merged-/usr-via-aliased-dirs the only supported layout and make >this information available to apt. (Like we did for multi-arch-support.) >2. After that individual packages can safely move files from / to /usr, >pre-depending on merged-usr-support.
This will still break “dpkg -S $(which programname)”, which I use a lot. And tons of other stuff. All aliasing schemes will. Just keep supporting unmerged filesystems and requiring /usr to be there at the time control is handed to init(8). A little bit more positively, as I recently switched my sid systems to bullseye, I was wondering which packages I now have to manually down‐ grade; additionally, a lot of “dust” they had accumulated over time. I am vaguely aware of aptitude having parts of this but don’t use it, so here we are: https://evolvis.org/plugins/scmgit/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=shellsnippets/shellsnippets.git;a=blob;f=mksh/debian-dev/aptcheck;hb=HEAD This little tool (the shellsnippets.git repository is also mirrored to github for those who prefer there) asks dpkg for the status of all packages (or those listed as arguments), complains about all which are not ii or hi, and for those it checks (via apt-cache policy as that was easier/more straightforward than apt-cache showpkg) whether the installed version is available from any repository and up-to-date (ignoring back‐ ports{,-sloppy}); neighbouring versions which *are* in repositories are shown as well (both bpo and not; for both, the respective highest one). This script needs… https://evolvis.org/plugins/scmgit/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=shellsnippets/shellsnippets.git;a=blob;f=mksh/progress-bar;hb=HEAD (also on github in the same repository, or in MirBSD CVS) … to be in the same or parent directory to display the progress bar which makes the long wait (I had 100% CPU utilisation on one core by apt-cache alone) bearable. You can redirect stdout still, though ☻ It found a surprising amount of packages I hope the maintainers filed unblock requests for ;-) Improvements welcome… that don’t involve rewriting this in a programming language beginning with b or p anyway ;-) also, comments. I can imagine it being useful in all sorts of situations, not just the one I’m currently using it for. (Also, “what packages I use were removed from Debian?” etc.) Development was sponsored by ⮡ tarent solutions GmbH Enjoy, //mirabilos -- Infrastrukturexperte • tarent solutions GmbH Am Dickobskreuz 10, D-53121 Bonn • http://www.tarent.de/ Telephon +49 228 54881-393 • Fax: +49 228 54881-235 HRB AG Bonn 5168 • USt-ID (VAT): DE122264941 Geschäftsführer: Dr. Stefan Barth, Kai Ebenrett, Boris Esser, Alexander Steeg