[Pkg-systemd-maintainers] Can we depend/recommend on reportbug ≥ 6.5.0?

[Michael Biebl]

Hi,

Am 27.01.2014 23:18, schrieb Michael Stapelberg:
> reportbug 6.5.0 landed in unstable recently and includes my patch which
> enables bugscripts to attach files, so that we no longer need to spam
> the entire bug report’s body with the “systemctl dump” output.
> 
> Now, I’ll start working on a commit soon to take advantage of that, but
> I wonder what we should do with regards to the question in the subject?
> 
> I suppose adding a hard dependency on reportbug is not a good idea since
> it might pull in that package on embedded systems. But what about a
> Recommends: reportbug (>= 6.5.0)? Will that lead to the package getting
> upgraded, even when the user has Install-Recommends turned off?
> Essentially, what I’m trying to achieve is that _if_ the user has
> reportbug installed, it should be upgraded to at least version 6.5.0
> when installing a newer systemd version :).

A recommends doesn't really help for what you want to achieve.

You said: "Now, I’ll start working on a commit soon to take advantage of
that"
Does that mean that the bugscript will fail if it is used with older
versions of reportbug?
In that case you might add a Breaks: reportbug (<< 6.5.0) to ensure if
reportbug is installed, it is a recent enough version.

A versioned depends is certainly not ok and a recommends doesn't give
you that guarantee.

> Or do you feel like it’s not a big deal and we should just live with the
> risk of getting a handful of bugreports where people have a newer
> systemd package but an older reportbug (i.e. a partially upgraded
> system) and hence the “systemctl dump” output will be missing and
> control instructions for reportbug will be visible instead?

If the "new" bug script still works with older versions of reportbug I
wouldn't bother, tbh.

Michael



-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

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