[Piuparts-devel] preview/python-support.pth

[Dave Steele]

On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 7:55 AM, Andreas Beckmann <anbe at debian.org> wrote:
> On 2013-02-22 02:43, Dave Steele wrote:
>> On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 4:19 PM, Andreas Beckmann <anbe at debian.org> wrote:
>>> /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/python-support.pth
>>> /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/python-support.pth
>>
>> The version list comes from /usr/share/python/debian_defaults
>> "supported-versions", which is 2.6 and 2.7 in sid. In sid,
>> 'old-versions' goes back to 2.3.
>
> can you trigger this somehow to show up?
>

That means adding the triggers to multiple versions of Python. I don't
see that happening just to quiet this package.

python-support is one of a very small handful of packages that
represent the bulk of the broken symlink queue, caused by symlinks to
files which don't exist at creation/install time. This one is
responsible for 1700 entries, 700 of which have only broken .pth
links.

For background, this is detail from the commit message:

python-support creates symlinks upon install under /usr/lib/python-x.y,
for all supported versions of python, whether installed or not.
If the version is not installed, the symlink is broken (#635493).
If a supported python version subsequently uninstalled, the symlink
is left dangling (#385775). Fixing this involves changes across
packages that are unlikely to happen for a deprecated package.

DP Appendix B.2
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/python-policy/ap-packaging_tools.html

dictionaries-common is the next on the list (about 1200). It creates
on install links for a word list that won't exist until after the
dictionary which called it in is installed. A trigger-based solution
would involve changes to many dictionary packages. Again, a big
change. Alternatively, the package can either install an empty word
list to be overwritten by the dictionary (multiple ownership, what
happens when -common is updated?), or the links can be excepted.

Next come python-numpy and ... I think vlc-data (about a thousand
each). Again, they each create links for files which don't yet exist.

All of the heavy hitters in broken-symlinks that I have looked at so
far fall in this camp. All can be fixed via triggers added to other
packages, with varying amounts of pain involved. A pain threshold will
need to be established.