Bug#735134: perl: rename(1) is ancient

[Adrian Bunk]

On Sun, Feb 02, 2014 at 03:12:32PM +0000, Dominic Hargreaves wrote:
> 
> So to summarise: for many years the perl package has provided
> /usr/bin/rename, a stanalone utility implemented in perl. The issue is we
> don't want to provide the utility from the perl package any more because
> it's been added locally inside debian/ and is not being maintained. A
> maintained version is available as a separate package, libfile-rename-perl.
> 
> The proposals on the table are:
> 
> 1) Have perl Depend on libfile-rename-perl (and therefore have the
>    latter become Priority: standard)
> 2) Make libfile-rename-perl be Standard, to match perl, without adding
>    any dependencies.
> 3) Have perl Recommend libfile-rename-perl for one release cycle and then
>    drop it
>    - optionally with a warning being emitted by the built-in script
> 4) 2) + 3) combined.
> 
> Option 1 would imply that the utility is fundamentally a part of 
> using perl, which since it's a standalone command line program which
> happens to be written in perl, seems wrong.
> 
> Option 2 is my preferred option because it seems like the 'least surprise'
> option. 4) can be considered a mostly-harmless enhancement to that,
> although adding warnings could be irritating or harmful in some
> circumstances.
> 
> Any further thoughts or alternative options?


The usual solution would be 1) for jessie and then simply drop that 
dependency after jessie:

It removes the risk that someone upgrading from wheezy to jessie will 
have troubles due to rename being gone. No warnings required, since
libfile-rename-perl will simply stay installed in jessie+1 for such
users.

No Depends/Recommends/Suggests from perl to libfile-rename-perl is 
required after jessie, since perl doesn't need it and the dependency
was only for upgrades.


Whether or not /usr/bin/rename should be part of a standard installation 
in jessie+1 and later is a separate discussion, and nothing that should 
be implemented through a dependency from perl.


> Cheers,
> Dominic.

cu
Adrian

-- 

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       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
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