Bug#1080359: libtest-simple-perl: uninstallable with Perl 5.40 due to Breaking libtest2-suite-perl

[Niko Tyni]

Control: reassign -1 perl 5.40.0-1
Control: retitle -1 perl: stop Providing libtest2-suite-perl

On Tue, Sep 03, 2024 at 11:01:22PM +0200, gregor herrmann wrote:
> On Mon, 02 Sep 2024 22:35:58 +0300, Niko Tyni wrote:
> 
> > I don't really know what to do about this. Maybe just remove the
> > Provides on the perl side?  That would mean that all dependencies
> > on libtest2-suite-perl would needlessly pull in a separate package
> > (presumably libtest-simple-perl as libtest2-suite-perl is going away as a
> > 'real' package.)
> 
> Removing the Provides should work; and although it's a bit ugly it
> would only be needed for ~1 year (until we get 5.42).

Except the trixie release is expected in that timeframe,
so for many of our users it's much more than one year...
 
> I also thought about lowering the Replaces/Breaks in
> libtest-simple-perl, but this wouldn't work, as perl ships (and
> Provides) 0.000162 and we have libtest2-suite-perl 0.000163 in the
> archive.

That ship indeed seems to have sailed.

> Another option might be to build a binary package libtest2-suite-perl
> from src:libtest-simple-perl, then we could drop the Replaces/Breaks
> in bin:libtest-simple-perl. Also ugly but also needed for only ~1
> year.

Yes, I think this would work. It's not too ugly but feels rather overkill
to me. The downsides of dropping Provides seem the lesser evil here.

> Or maybe we could just remove libtest-simple-perl and libtest2-suite-perl
> from the archive and be happy with what's in src:perl. (But I guess
> there is a reason for having them, like other packages requiring
> newer versions …).

Given the current development pace I'd prefer to keep the separate
packages.

I think I'm inclined to just drop Provides:libtest2-suite-perl from perl.
If the extra baggage becomes a burden, dependants that are happy with
0.000162 can still use the old runes - something like

  Depends: perl (>= 5.40.0) | libtest2-suite-perl (>= xxx).

So reassigning, but I'm still open to other arguments :)

Thanks for looking at this.
-- 
Niko