[Piuparts-devel] Bug#644626: piuparts: Testing package data compression

[Mats Erik Andersson]

Package: piuparts
Severity: wishlist
Version: 0.41

We have recently seen failures #633782 and #644353 making
the installer fail due to individual packages using bzip2
compression of the data part in the corresponding binary
package.

Would it be possible, and suitable, to have Piuparts implement
an examination of the compression type used on a package?

To prevent bugs like those mentioned, one would need to
identify which compression types the bootstrapper supports
in the installer at all times, and one would need to keep
track of which dependencies are brought in by the installer.
This latter information should be readily available already,
or at least traceable, and the first piece of information
is even simpler to register.

We recently saw an emerging discussion on compression
methods for packages, in a thread which certainly is relevant
for the kind of grave bugs that I address here. Thus it
seems relevant that the build infrastructure pay attention
to this most disruptive source of errors.

Best regards,
  Mats Erik Andersson