[debian-mysql] Bug#857444: Bug#857444: mysql-server-5.5: upgrade from jessie to stretch leaves mysql server uninstalled

[Lars Tangvald]

On 03/15/2017 07:25 AM, Gabriel Filion wrote:
> Lars Tangvald:
>> ----- gabster at lelutin.ca wrote:
>>
>>> Ugh, I fail at reportbug again :(
>>>
>>> real sorry about the initial report.
>>>
>>> here's the real description of the problem:
>>>
>>>
>>> when upgrading from jessie to stretch, the upgrade goes through
>>> without
>>> an error but the end result is that mysql-server-5.5 gets removed and
>>> mysql is not running anymore.
>>>
>>> stretch is supposed to push ppl towards mariadb according to the
>>> (still
>>> work in progress) release notes, however mariadb doesn't get
>>> installed.
>>>
>>> There is no mysql-server, mysql-server-* or mysql-client-* packages
>>> in
>>> stretch so I believe this to be the source of the issue.
>>>
>>> One can fix the problem either by adding default-mysql-server before
>>> upgrading or after. however this poses a problem:
>>>
>>>   * before the upgrade, the default-mysql-server package is only
>>> available in jessie-backports
>>>   * after the upgrade, you've gotten no notice at all about what's
>>> happening and why the mysql server is not running and not upgraded.
>>>
>>> One way to make this an easier transition would be to have a
>>> mysql-server package in stretch that's a dummy package that depends
>>> on
>>> default-mysql-server, and that has an upgrade notice about the
>>> transition to mariadb that is happening.
>>>
>>>
>> The mysql package names should be reserved for actual mysql packages (default-mysql, virtual-mysql etc. are named so because there isn't a better term for "mysql-ish"). While the current situation with mysql being half-uninstalled is pretty odd, we shouldn't automatically replace mysql-server with mariadb-server, as it can cause problems for users who want to keep using mysql, while those who are fine with either just need to install mariadb after the upgrade.
> This sounds reasonable, but there are currently lots of mysql-* packages
> missing from stretch.
>
> I can currently only see mysql-common, mysql-sandbox, mysql-utilities,
> mysql-workbench{,-data}, mysqltcl, mysqltuner.
>
> there are neither packages for client nor server.
>
Yes, the release and security teams decided to drop MySQL from Stretch, 
(anything that won't work with MariaDB is also being removed).
But MySQL is still present in unstable and in upstream's repository 
(which will have Stretch packages). Having mysql-server point to MariaDB 
(which is what default-mysql is in Stretch) will cause issues with 
those, not to mention being wildly inaccurate.

I'm a bit confused on why the mysql server packages are automatically 
removed, though. I figured that when updating to new package archives 
that are missing a package, that package will be flagged as obsolete, 
and _suggested_ to the user for removal, so why does it happen 
automatically? It seems to be caused by the removal of libperl5.20, but 
I'm having trouble tracing the dependency on it (removing it manually 
gives a slightly different result, and the dependency isn't direct). It 
only removed mysql-server-5.5, not mysql-server-core-5.5 (so you still 
have the server, just not the service), so there might be a way to "fix" 
it, so users are told the package is obsolete without automatic removal.

--
Lars


--
Lars