Bug#838760: perl: Perl/Perl-base upgrade removes 141 packages (Sid/Unstable)

[Cindy Sue Causey]

Package: perl
Version: 5.22.2-5
Severity: critical
Justification: breaks unrelated software

Dear Maintainer,

Hi! Thank you for all the hard work you all to so #poverty level folks have a chance to keep up with the tech world, too! As to why I'm writing, just tried to upgrade a select 30+ packages in Sid/Unstable. Apt-get is my chosen method to do so. Received the message that  Received the advisement that:

2 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 141 to remove

ALMOST let it happen because I was in a hurry and didn't immediately catch that message. Only thing I know to do in this kind of situation is to set Perl and Perl-base aside and wait for the next release so that's how I'm approaching it today.

As a disclaimer that just came to mind, other important packages are not yet upgraded, as well. Those include cpp-6, libreoffice, linux-image-4.7.0-1-amd64, and linux-source-4.7. Reason is that I'm on dialup and am currently looking at approximately 400MB of upgrades that must be done incrementally. I always upgrade the smaller packages first. I figure that's important to know since each personally developed Debian system understandably succeeds and fails based on what's available within itself.

The same attempt at 141 package removals occurs for both Perl and Perl-base but for now am only filing the bug against the primary "perl" unless you advise otherwise.

Lastly, I didn't know if it was important for you to know which packages were affected so they are all included directly below.

Thank you again *so much* for all you do. Happy Debian'ing!!! :)

Cindy Sue Causey
Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA
* runs with duct tape*


+ + + BEGIN COPY OF APT-GET'S PERL UPGRADE ADVISEMENT + + +

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libperl5.24 perl-modules-5.24

The following packages will be REMOVED:
  apt-file apt-show-versions aspell aspell-en claws-mail claws-mail-i18n
  console-setup console-setup-linux debconf-i18n debsums dictionaries-common
  enchant gnome-user-guide hunspell-en-us inkscape keyboard-configuration
  libalgorithm-diff-xs-perl libapt-pkg-perl libb-hooks-endofscope-perl
  libcairo-perl libcgi-fast-perl libcgi-pm-perl libclass-accessor-perl
  libclass-xsaccessor-perl libclone-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl
  libdata-alias-perl libdata-optlist-perl libemail-valid-perl libenchant1c2a
  libfcgi-perl libfile-fcntllock-perl libfile-fnmatch-perl
  libfile-libmagic-perl libgetopt-long-descriptive-perl libglib-perl
  libgtk2-gladexml-perl libgtk2-perl libgtkspell0 libgtkspell3-3-0
  libhtml-form-perl libhtml-format-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tree-perl
  libimage-magick-perl libimage-magick-q16-perl libimport-into-perl
  libio-pty-perl libio-socket-inet6-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libipc-run-perl
  liblist-moreutils-perl liblocale-gettext-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl
  libmailtools-perl libmath-random-isaac-xs-perl libmime-tools-perl
  libmodule-implementation-perl libmodule-runtime-perl libmoo-perl
  libnamespace-clean-perl libnet-dbus-perl libnet-dns-perl
  libnet-smtp-ssl-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libossp-uuid-perl
  libpackage-stash-perl libpackage-stash-xs-perl libpango-perl
  libparams-classify-perl libparams-util-perl libparams-validate-perl
  libparse-debianchangelog-perl libperlio-gzip-perl libscalar-list-utils-perl
  libsoap-lite-perl libsocket6-perl libsort-key-perl libsub-exporter-perl
  libsub-identify-perl libsub-name-perl libsvn-perl libtext-charwidth-perl
  libtext-iconv-perl libtext-wrapi18n-perl libunicode-utf8-perl
  libvariable-magic-perl libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37 libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37-gtk2
  libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 libwww-perl libxml-parser-perl libxml-twig-perl
  libxmlrpc-lite-perl libyaml-libyaml-perl libyelp0 licensecheck lintian
  miscfiles modem-manager-gui moreutils packaging-dev piuparts qemu-launcher
  svn-buildpackage tasksel tasksel-data xombrero xorg xscreensaver
  xscreensaver-data xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all
  xserver-xorg-input-evdev xserver-xorg-input-libinput
  xserver-xorg-input-mouse xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
  xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-all
  xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
  xserver-xorg-video-fbdev xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
  xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
  xserver-xorg-video-qxl xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
  xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
  xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
  yelp

+ + + END COPY OF APT-GET'S PERL UPGRADE ADVISEMENT + + +


-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.7.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages perl depends on:
ii  dpkg               1.18.10
ii  libperl5.22        5.22.2-5
ii  perl-base          5.22.2-5
ii  perl-modules-5.22  5.22.2-5

Versions of packages perl recommends:
ii  netbase  5.3
ii  rename   0.20-4

Versions of packages perl suggests:
pn  libterm-readline-gnu-perl | libterm-readline-perl-perl  <none>
ii  make                                                    4.1-9
pn  perl-doc                                                <none>

-- no debconf information