[Pkg-pascal-devel] Bug#1059376: Bug#1059376: Bug#1059376: Bug#1059376: lcl is wrongly marked Multi-Arch: foreign

[Helmut Grohne]

On Sun, Dec 31, 2023 at 09:08:31AM +0100, Abou Al Montacir wrote:
> So the new changes triggered more than 2.5k lintian warning.
> https://udd.debian.org/lintian/?packages=lazarus

Are you referring to those
arch-dependent-file-not-in-arch-specific-directory only?

> The issue is that Lazarus does not use the same directory structure for foreign
> files as expected by MA.

I'm not sure what you mean with "foreign files".

The lintian tag above complains about architecture-dependent files in
M-A:same packages not being on fully architecture-dependent paths. For
example, usr/lib/lazarus/3.0/units/arm-linux/gtk2/designer.o is
architecture-dependent. Say you would like to co-install
lcl-gtk2-3.0:armel and lcl-gtk2-3.0:armhf, then both would contain this
file, because pascal's structure does not differentiate these.
Attempting to co-install them would result in an unpack error and
release-critical bug.

> This may be very hard to change, at least at short term level.

I agree, but if you want to add M-A:same, you must. Conversely, if you
cannot change this, you must not use M-A:same.

> Not sure if it is better to override this error for now.

Definitely not. I said that I was unsure about M-A:same and you should
watch out for the hinter. Hinter results are there:

    lcl-gtk2-3.0 conflicts on 611 files starting with /usr/lib/lazarus/3.0/ on armel <-> armhf
    lcl-nogui-3.0 conflicts on 403 files starting with /usr/lib/lazarus/3.0/ on armel <-> armhf
    lcl-qt5-3.0 conflicts on 236 files starting with /usr/lib/lazarus/3.0/ on armel <-> armhf
    lcl-units-3.0 conflicts on 1234 files starting with /usr/lib/lazarus/3.0/ on armel <-> armhf

Adding these up gives roughly 2.5k issues, right?  The hinter fully
agrees with lintian. You must not mark these packages M-A:same as is.

While removing M-A:same sounds bad, it actually is not as bad as it
seems. The need to coinstall these packages arises rarely. The ability
to perform a foreign installation is the big step. That step is moving
from Arch:all to Arch:any. M-A:same merely is the icing on the cake.
Let's have cake without icing for now.

Helmut