[PureOS] Dropping derived cron package?

[Jonas Smedegaard]

Hi Carsten,

Quoting Carsten Schoenert (2021-10-16 16:47:52)
> back in 2018 Matthias did a small modification within the cron package 
> that resulted in forked tree and small different binary package for 
> cron. Basically the only difference is this patch:
> 
> > $ git show c2766e7259b86b32bcecd2d61607eb022fd31310
> > commit c2766e7259b86b32bcecd2d61607eb022fd31310
> > Author: Matthias Klumpp <matthias at tenstral.net>
> > Date:   Sun Aug 19 20:50:32 2018 +0200
> > 
> >     Only suggest, not recommend, an MTA
> > 
> > diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
> > index 1bd9c3e..e6a6766 100644
> > --- a/debian/control
> > +++ b/debian/control
> > @@ -25,12 +25,11 @@ Depends:
> >      adduser,
> >      lsb-base (>= 3.0-10),
> >      libpam-runtime (>= 1.0.1-11)
> > -Recommends:
> > -    exim4 | postfix | mail-transport-agent
> >  Suggests:
> >      anacron (>=2.0-1),
> >      logrotate,
> > -    checksecurity
> > +    checksecurity,
> > +    exim4 | postfix | mail-transport-agent
> >  Breaks:
> >      dpkg (<< 1.15.4)
> >  Provides: cron-daemon
> 
> In between times the packaging in Debian has been changed on this part.
> 
> > $ git show f27b9ccdb2046fe3fbb1eef6d7801d4b3d6900c7
> > commit f27b9ccdb2046fe3fbb1eef6d7801d4b3d6900c7
> > Author: Christian Kastner <ckk at debian.org>
> > Date:   Tue Feb 19 21:46:16 2019 +0100
> > 
> >     Switch cron MTA Recommends to default-mta | mail-transport-agent
> >     
> >     Recommend these virtual packages rather than specific MTAs.
> > 
> > diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
> > index fc59f49..609e84f 100644
> > --- a/debian/control
> > +++ b/debian/control
> > @@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Depends:
> >      lsb-base (>= 3.0-10),
> >      libpam-runtime (>= 1.0.1-11)
> >  Recommends:
> > -    exim4 | postfix | mail-transport-agent
> > +    default-mta | mail-transport-agent
> >  Suggests:
> >      anacron (>= 2.0-1),
> >      logrotate,
> 
> Is this change worth to update the current cron package in byzantium or 
> could the derived package instead get dropped?
> 
> (It's not completely clear to me why the mta part was moved to Suggests.)

PureOS does not install an MTA by default - Debian does.

Debian historically hardcoded a preference of using exim4 as MTA, but at 
some point made that flexible - so that derivatives could use a 
different default without needing to recompile each and every package 
depending on or recommending an MTA.

Makes sense to me to maintain the delta - i.e. update the patch to lower 
from recomending to suggesting default-mta (not exim4).

When you rework a patch like that, the best is that you preserve the 
original patch author but add yourself as well: Idea is that it serves 
as a note for anyone wanting to get in touch with whoever wrote the 
patch - and even if you perhaps want to be polite and give full credit 
to Matthias for his creative work here, that would be misleading if 
someone wanted to ask whe the heck the patch is broken...

(speaking from experience of "giving fill credit" only to have that 
backfire later on...)


 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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