merged /usr

[Vagrant Cascadian]

On 2021-08-17, Holger Levsen wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 15, 2021 at 12:16:39AM +0100, Simon McVittie wrote:
>> The failure mode we have sometimes seen is packages that were built in
>> a merged-/usr chroot not working on a non-merged-/usr system, although
>> that's detected by the reproducible-builds infrastructure and is already
>> considered to be a bug since buster (AIUI it's considered a non-RC bug
>> in buster and bullseye, as a result of things like #914897 mitigating it).
>
> FWIW i'm preparing a commit right now which will change the reproducible-builds
> infrastructure in so far as:
>
> - bullseye will not be tested anymore for differences of building with or
>   without the usrmerge package installed (just like stretch and buster were
>   and are not).
> - bookworn and unstable will be tested for differences of building with or
>   without the usrmerge package installed.

Given:

 TC decision on "Merged /usr"
 https://bugs.debian.org/914897 

The short of it, as I read it, is that non-usrmerge systems will be
unsupported for bookworm, or did I misread that?


I would almost think it makes more sense to *not* test usrmerge for
bookworm, but continue to test it for bullseye and unstable (and
experimental) in the reproducible builds infrastructure.

This is my quick rationale for why I think that:

* bullseye has been doing usrmerge variations for it's entire
  development cycle, it seems odd to change now.

* Keeping unstable/sid with usrmerge variations is good for QA, as it
  does occasionally catch deeper issues.

* Not doing usrmerge variations for bookworm is consistent with the plan
  for the next release (though we should have usrmerge always enabled
  then, as opposed to only building with non-usrmerge). It is also
  similar to build paths (which are not tested in the "testing" suite),
  a lower bar for the "testing" suite, as it is a relatively easy thing
  to workaround for reproducibility.


But, I've only caught a small part of this thread, so maybe there's more
to it. :)


live well,
  vagrant
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