Debian Bug report logs - #629527
apt: should warn (or emit an error) if symbolic and code-names mixed in sources.list

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Matthew Vernon <matthew@debian.org>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: apt: should warn (or emit an error) if symbolic and code-names mixed in sources.list

Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:46:54 +0100

Package: apt
Version: 0.8.10.3
Severity: wishlist

Hi,

For most users, most of the time, mixing symbolic (stable, unstable) and 
code-names (lenny, squeeze) in sources.list is a mistake, and will lead 
to trouble. I've encountered this problem on other peoples' systems a 
few times now. Clearly, there are times when more experienced users will 
want to do this, but I believe this to be the exeption rather than the 
rule.

Accordingly, I'd like to suggest that apt emits a warning (or maybe an 
error) if it finds symbolc and code-names in the same sources.list file. 
Obviously, you'd want an associated apt-config rune to say "no, really, 
I know what I'm doing", but I think this would save our less experienced 
users a lot of pain.

Regards,

Matthew

-- Package-specific info:

-- apt-config dump --

APT "";
APT::Architecture "amd64";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
APT::Install-Recommends "1";
APT::Install-Suggests "0";
APT::Acquire "";
APT::Acquire::Translation "environment";
APT::Authentication "";
APT::Authentication::TrustCDROM "true";
APT::NeverAutoRemove "";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^firmware-linux.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-firmware$";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-image.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^kfreebsd-image.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-restricted-modules.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-ubuntu-modules-.*";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections "";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "metapackages";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "restricted/metapackages";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "universe/metapackages";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "multiverse/metapackages";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "oldlibs";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "restricted/oldlibs";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "universe/oldlibs";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "multiverse/oldlibs";
APT::Periodic "";
APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "0";
APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval "0";
APT::Update "";
APT::Update::Post-Invoke "";
APT::Update::Post-Invoke:: "touch /var/lib/apt/periodic/update-success-stamp 2>/dev/null || true";
APT::Update::Post-Invoke-Success "";
APT::Update::Post-Invoke-Success:: "[ ! -f /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket ] || /usr/bin/dbus-send --system --dest=org.debian.apt --type=signal /org/debian/apt org.debian.apt.CacheChanged || true";
APT::Archives "";
APT::Archives::MaxAge "30";
APT::Archives::MinAge "2";
APT::Archives::MaxSize "500";
Dir "/";
Dir::State "var/lib/apt/";
Dir::State::lists "lists/";
Dir::State::cdroms "cdroms.list";
Dir::State::mirrors "mirrors/";
Dir::State::extended_states "extended_states";
Dir::State::status "/var/lib/dpkg/status";
Dir::Cache "var/cache/apt/";
Dir::Cache::archives "archives/";
Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin";
Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin";
Dir::Etc "etc/apt/";
Dir::Etc::sourcelist "sources.list";
Dir::Etc::sourceparts "sources.list.d";
Dir::Etc::vendorlist "vendors.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorparts "vendors.list.d";
Dir::Etc::main "apt.conf";
Dir::Etc::netrc "auth.conf";
Dir::Etc::parts "apt.conf.d";
Dir::Etc::preferences "preferences";
Dir::Etc::preferencesparts "preferences.d";
Dir::Etc::trusted "trusted.gpg";
Dir::Etc::trustedparts "trusted.gpg.d";
Dir::Bin "";
Dir::Bin::methods "/usr/lib/apt/methods";
Dir::Bin::dpkg "/usr/bin/dpkg";
Dir::Media "";
Dir::Media::MountPath "/media/apt";
Dir::Log "var/log/apt";
Dir::Log::Terminal "term.log";
Dir::Log::History "history.log";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently "";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently:: "~$";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently:: "\.disabled$";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently:: "\.bak$";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently:: "\.dpkg-[a-z]+$";
Unattended-Upgrade "";
Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins "";
Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins:: "${distro_id} stable";
Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins:: "${distro_id} ${distro_codename}-security";
DPkg "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";
DPkg::Post-Invoke "";
DPkg::Post-Invoke:: "if [ -d /var/lib/update-notifier ]; then touch /var/lib/update-notifier/dpkg-run-stamp; fi; if [ -e /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available ]; then echo > /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available; fi ";
CommandLine "";
CommandLine::AsString "apt-config dump";

-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --


-- /etc/apt/sources.list --

# deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ lenny main

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main

deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main

#deb http://debian.calel.org/macpro lenny main

#deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports lenny-backports main

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0.1
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  debian-archive-keyring  2010.08.28       GnuPG archive keys of the Debian a
ii  gnupg                   1.4.10-4         GNU privacy guard - a free PGP rep
ii  libc6                   2.11.2-10        Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libgcc1                 1:4.4.5-8        GCC support library
ii  libstdc++6              4.4.5-8          The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  zlib1g                  1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3 compression library - runtime

apt recommends no packages.

Versions of packages apt suggests:
pn  apt-doc                     <none>       (no description available)
ii  aptitude                    0.6.3-3.2    terminal-based package manager (te
ii  bzip2                       1.0.5-6      high-quality block-sorting file co
ii  dpkg-dev                    1.15.8.10    Debian package development tools
pn  lzma                        <none>       (no description available)
ii  python-apt                  0.7.100.1    Python interface to libapt-pkg
ii  synaptic                    0.70~pre1+b1 Graphical package manager

-- no debconf information

Message #10 received at 629527@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: David Kalnischkies <kalnischkies+debian@gmail.com>

To: Matthew Vernon <matthew@debian.org>, 629527@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#629527: apt: should warn (or emit an error) if symbolic and code-names mixed in sources.list

Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2011 15:05:22 +0200

On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 13:46, Matthew Vernon <matthew@debian.org> wrote:
> For most users, most of the time, mixing symbolic (stable, unstable) and
> code-names (lenny, squeeze) in sources.list is a mistake, and will lead
> to trouble.

In which way? You are talking about pain, but not which one…

Beside that it will be hard to detect it will generate a lot of "false
positives" in a way that many third-party repositories doesn't provide
codenames/symlinks - while the debian-installer default is to use codenames.
So you are setting up for trouble as these user will be frightened by
a strange error-message as soon as they add such a repo…
(which from a supporter point of view isn't the worst thing through…)

Not to forget that 'stable', 'testing' and alike as suite names aren't really
limited to be used by debian or even in a debian compatible way.
I wouldn't bash an upstream for providing a 'testing' suite in which
daily-autobuilds of his trunk are available.


Best regards

David Kalnischkies

Message #15 received at 629527@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Matthew Vernon <matthew@debian.org>

To: David Kalnischkies <kalnischkies+debian@gmail.com>

Cc: 629527@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#629527: apt: should warn (or emit an error) if symbolic and code-names mixed in sources.list

Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:31:18 +0100

On 07/06/11 14:05, David Kalnischkies wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 13:46, Matthew Vernon<matthew@debian.org>  wrote:
>> For most users, most of the time, mixing symbolic (stable, unstable) and
>> code-names (lenny, squeeze) in sources.list is a mistake, and will lead
>> to trouble.
>
> In which way? You are talking about pain, but not which one…

The case I saw today was someone with "lenny" for their main mirror, and 
"stable/updates" for security.d.o, which resulted in the user getting 
their system into a state such that they couldn't install some packages.

As to non-Debian uses, surely these could be configured by a particular 
distribution (or the "I know what I'm doing flag" set to bypass these 
checks)?

Regards,

Matthew

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