Bug#665417: gconf: another multiarch upgrade error

[Steve Langasek]

Package: gconf
Version: 3.2.3-4.1
Severity: important
Tags: patch
User: ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
Usertags: origin-ubuntu precise ubuntu-patch

Hi again,

Another upgrade issue has been reported related to the gconf multiarch
split.  This time, a known bug in the version of apt in Ubuntu 11.10 has
been seen causing gconf-service:i386 to be installed on an amd64 machine
together with gconf2:amd64:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gconf/+bug/962854

While apt should not have chosen the :i386 package when the :amd64 package
would have worked, the fact that the :i386 package satisfies the dependency
of gconf2 is a bug.  This means that Multi-Arch: foreign is the wrong tag to
use for gconf2, which needs to be able to load the backend plugins contained
in gconf-service.

Per the multiarch spec, the intended label for a package such as
gconf-service that exposes both arch-dependent and arch-independent
interfaces is Multi-Arch: allowed.  However, to take advantage of M-A:
allowed, packages would need to depend on gconf-service:any, which won't
work with the apt in squeeze.  I've therefore uploaded the attached
workaround to Ubuntu, which further splits the package into a M-A: foreign
gconf-service, listed in the shlibs and used as the dependency for all
packages other than gconf2; and a M-A: none gconf-service-backend, containing
the actual files and used as the dependency of gconf2 and gconf-service.

>From the Ubuntu changelog:

  * Split gconf-service further into gconf-service and gconf-service-backend,
    one package being Multi-Arch: foreign and the other Multi-Arch: none, so
    that we correctly handle the fact that gconf2 needs backend modules of
    the same arch whereas other reverse-dependencies just need a working
    daemon.  LP: #962854.

This isn't pretty, but it's the best way to ensure clean upgrades from
pre-multiarch toolchains; so I think that's the best solution for Debian as
well.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                    http://www.debian.org/
slangasek at ubuntu.com                                     vorlon at debian.org
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