[debian-mysql] Please don't fork MariaDB packaging in Ubuntu

[Andreas Hasenack]

Hi Otto,

On Mon, May 2, 2022 at 11:27 AM Otto Kekäläinen <otto at debian.org> wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> I noticed that MariaDB packaging got "forked" in Ubuntu:
> https://patches.ubuntu.com/m/mariadb-10.6/mariadb-10.6_1:10.6.7-3ubuntu1.patch
>
> It was due to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mariadb-10.6/+bug/1970634
> that wasn't reported upstream or discussed on this list. If wasn't
> tested on https://launchpad.net/~mysql-ubuntu/+archive/ubuntu/mariadb-10.6/+builds?build_text=&build_state=all
> nor it is submitter to
> https://salsa.debian.org/mariadb-team/mariadb-server or tested on the
> CI in Debian. Even if you think that the fix is so small that it
> should never go to Debian, the security updates of Focal flow from
> Debian and there should be some effort to avoid duplicate or extra
> work, which forks easily lead to.
>
> I request you to not just silently fix/fork stuff in Ubuntu, but
> rather work with the upstreams you inherit software/packaging from.

Sorry about that, it is still my intention to submit the change to
Debian (see below, there might be another option), but this is an
ubuntu-only bug as far as we can tell, because we enabled LTO[1], and
I wanted to be sure the new build migrated and passed all tests. I
usually only submit changes to Debian after they fixed the problem in
Ubuntu, and the confirmation happened over this past weekend only.

It was discussed with upstream (not debian, though) in a few places:

- the ubuntu bug[2], upstream chimed in
- upstream zulip, where I brought this up for the first time:
https://mariadb.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/118759-general/topic/Development/near/280492573
- upstream also filed a bug with themselves, where it was deemed to be
an LTO problem[3]

It was only after a while that the problem was deemed to be LTO
related, and these builds take a long time. The package migrated over
the weekend.

For this case, I have two options:
- a conditional check in d/rules for Ubuntu, and only disable LTO if
it's an ubuntu build
- add mariadb-10.6 to the ubuntu-only src:lto-disabled-list package. I
didn't do this in the first place because I want to SRU this fix to
Jammy, but I can do this for Kinetic, and then sync mariadb again. But
if Debian adopts LTO at some point, it will regress, unless you have
the same src:lto-disabled-list package.

I suspect you would prefer the second option, but please let me know
and I can create a PR in salsa, and even file a debian bug if you
wish.

Also, maybe at some point the real fix lands in either mariadb or gcc,
and lto can be re-enabled, but that's for the future.

Sorry for the surprise, and thanks for getting in touch!


1. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ToolChain/LTO
2. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mariadb-10.6/+bug/1970634
3. https://jira.mariadb.org/browse/MDEV-28441