[Pkg-zsh-devel] Bug#920746: zsh-common: lost menu entry on upgrade

[Sven Joachim]

On 2019-01-29 21:06 +0100, Axel Beckert wrote:

> Sven Joachim wrote:
>> In the latest uploads (5.7-1 and 5.7-2) I noticed that the Debian menu
>> entry for zsh got lost when upgrading zsh and zsh-common.
>
> JFTR: I've got a Zsh menu entry.

Did you try "dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/zsh-common_5.7-2_all.deb \
/var/cache/apt/archives/zsh_5.7-2_amd64.deb" ?  This loses the menu
entry for me.  Just reinstalling zsh-common does not.

>> Manually running "update-menus" brought it back.
>
> Could though have been that another tool ran update-menus in the meanwhile.
>
> Hrm. Could this be the switch from debhelper compat 11 to 12? Then
> again, /var/lib/dpkg/info/zsh-common.postinst has this code inserted
> by debhelper:
>
> # Automatically added by dh_installmenu/12
> if [ "$1" = "configure" ] && [ -x "`which update-menus 2>/dev/null`" ]; then
>         update-menus
> fi
> # End automatically added section
>
> Looks good to me, i.e. doesn't explain that sudden difference. In
> contrary, this looks like a bug elsewhere. I also see nothing related
> in the "Changes from v11" section of debhelper(7)…

I had thought of debhelper as well, but dh_installmenu behaves
identically in compat levels 11 and 12.  Also, installing zsh-common and
zsh 5.6.2-3 also results in a lost menu entry.

My hunch that recent dpkg upgrades changed something wrt trigger
processing is also red herring, since dpkg 1.19.2, 1.19.1 and 1.19.0.5
all behave identically.  So I don't know why I have not noticed the
problem earlier.

>> There does not seem to be a change in zsh itself which could have
>> triggered this, rather I suspect some change in dpkg 1.19.3 has caused
>> it.  Related bugs in menu are #628574, #518919 (archived) and #900838.
>
> Hrm.
>
>> A possible solution is to move the menu file back to zsh where it
>> arguably belongs (it was moved to zsh-common in commit be35418de3).
>
> I a) doubt that this helps because that commit is from 2012. I also
> don't see why it should be in the architecture-dependent package while
> being an architecture-independent file.

Well, there is a reason for the (overridden) menu-command-not-in-package
lintian warning since /bin/zsh is not shipped in zsh-common, nor does
zsh-common depend on zsh.

Ultimately it's menu which is broken, and I have no hope that it ever
gets fixed considering the maintainer's reaction to #518919 and
#628574. :-(

>> Or remove the menu file altogether.
>
> Indeed an option, but IMHO not because of this issue. IMHO shells are
> nothing to be used via some menu.

Agreed, but shell maintainers seem to have a different view: bash, dash,
tcsh and posh all come with menu files.

Cheers,
       Sven