[pkg-php-pear] Bug#792023: php-zend-db_2.5.1-1.dsc can't be unpacked on wheezy

[Colin Watson]

Package: php-zend-db
Version: 2.5.1-1
Severity: normal

Attempting to unpack php-zend-db on wheezy fails:

  [cjwatson at niejwein(wheezy-amd64) ~]$ dpkg-source -x php-zend-db_2.5.1-1.dsc 
  gpgv: Signature made Thu Jul  9 17:08:00 2015 BST using RSA key ID 44F6BD3C
  gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found
  dpkg-source: warning: failed to verify signature on ./php-zend-db_2.5.1-1.dsc
  dpkg-source: info: extracting php-zend-db in php-zend-db-2.5.1
  dpkg-source: info: unpacking php-zend-db_2.5.1.orig.tar.gz
  dpkg-source: info: unpacking php-zend-db_2.5.1-1.debian.tar.xz
  dpkg-source: info: applying 0001-Drop-useless-execution-bit.patch
  dpkg-source: warning: diff `php-zend-db-2.5.1/debian/patches/0001-Drop-useless-execution-bit.patch' doesn't contain any patch
  patch: **** Only garbage was found in the patch input.
  dpkg-source: info: fuzz is not allowed when applying patches
  dpkg-source: info: if patch '0001-Drop-useless-execution-bit.patch' is correctly applied by quilt, use 'quilt refresh' to update it
  dpkg-source: error: LC_ALL=C patch -t -F 0 -N -p1 -u -V never -g0 -E -b -B .pc/0001-Drop-useless-execution-bit.patch/ --reject-file=- < php-zend-db-2.5.1/debian/patches/0001-Drop-useless-execution-bit.patch gave error exit status 2

This is because permission-only patches were only implemented in patch
2.7.  Relying on this seems possibly a bit much: it causes problems for
archive management systems that are running on older releases, for
instance.  (From Ubuntu's side, Launchpad is failing to import this
source package into its database mirror of Debian source packages, and
merges.ubuntu.com and friends are getting upset as well.)

Would it be possible to just make this permission change in debian/rules
instead, to tolerate older tools?  This is the first time I've seen such
a permission-only change in a Debian source package.

Thanks,

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at debian.org]