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Package: dbus
Version: 1.16.2-1
Severity: important
Tags: patch

Dear Maintainer,

dbus currently declares a dependency on base-files or usr-is-merged
packages. These dependencies were previously added as an attempt to
ensure the system is /usr-merged before installing dbus.

dbus is the only package in debian that declares a dependency on the usr-is-merged package.

base-files is an essential package and debian trixie only functions with
a /usr-merged filesystem layout. It is guaranteed that a debian trixie
system is /usr-merged.

This makes it unnecessary for dbus to declare a dependency on base-files
or the usr-is-merged package (which itself is now a virtual package
provided by base-files).

Please remove the dependencies. Patch attached. Thanks.

diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 5c542d7..d5e487e 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -49,7 +49,6 @@ Depends:
dbus-bin (= ${binary:Version}),
dbus-daemon (= ${binary:Version}),
dbus-system-bus-common (>= ${source:Version}),
- base-files (>= 13.4~) | usr-is-merged (>= 38~),
${misc:Depends},
${shlibs:Depends},
Suggests:

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On Thu, Mar 06, 2025 at 10:58:57PM +0000, cacin@allfreemail.net wrote:

dbus currently declares a dependency on base-files or usr-is-merged
packages. These dependencies were previously added as an attempt to
ensure the system is /usr-merged before installing dbus.

This is absolutely NOT needless. Please check the versions in the
given dependencies before filing such bugs, and preferably also the d/changelog.

Chris

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On Thu, 06 Mar 2025 at 22:58:57 +0000, cacin@allfreemail.net wrote:

Severity: important

What major effect do you believe this dependency has on the usability
of the dbus package, given that base-files is already Essential?

The intention of this dependency is to make sure that during upgrades
from bookworm to trixie or partial upgrades from trixie to trixie,
base-files (or usr-is-merged) is upgraded before dbus, so that it will
be base-files (or usr-is-merged) that is responsible for presenting
messages about how a non-merged /usr is no longer supported.

The validity of the current dependency was agreed with the coordinators
of the merged-/usr transition in #1072756 and #1085407.

If the alternative dependency on usr-is-merged is a practical problem for whatever reason, now that the required version of base-files has been
around for a while we could remove that, leaving only base-files.

For avoidance of doubt, I do not consider the presence of a small
transitional package on upgraded systems to be a Severity: important bug.
dbus' changelog alone is larger than the usr-is-merged package.

base-files is an essential package and debian trixie only functions with
a /usr-merged filesystem layout. It is guaranteed that a debian trixie
system is /usr-merged.

dbus had a particularly bad failure mode if the version that has moved
its systemd unit to /usr is installed on an unsupported system that is not /usr-merged (see #1054650).

Unfortunately, some Debian users create unsupported situations, and then
demand that I resolve those situations for them. I am not willing to carry
the support burden of responding to reports like #1054650
("Severity: critical"), even if those reports represent user error.

smcv

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