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

[Ben Hutchings]

On Sun, 2014-02-02 at 19:42 +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> 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:
[...]

I do hope that is not a usual solution, as it leaves libfile-rename-perl
auto-removable after the following release.

(Note that this isn't a problem for transitional packages, because APT
does not mark dependencies of packages in section 'oldlibs' as
auto-installed.)

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
It is easier to write an incorrect program than to understand a correct one.
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