base-files: /etc/os-release should contain VERSION variables for testing and unstable

base-files: /etc/os-release should contain VERSION variables for testing and unstable

[Sedat Dilek]

[ CC linux-kbuild folks (see [0] ]

Hi,

I am using Debian/unstable AMD64 and doing Linux-kernel upstream
development and testing.

People using bindeb-pkg (mkdebian) from Linux-kernel sources
(scripts/packages) to build and test their selfmade Debian kernels get
a now a "n/a" for distribution.

Background (see [1]):

[ scripts/package/mkdebian ]

# Try to determine distribution
if [ -n "$KDEB_CHANGELOG_DIST" ]; then
        distribution=$KDEB_CHANGELOG_DIST
# In some cases lsb_release returns the codename as n/a, which breaks
dpkg-parsechangelog
elif distribution=$(lsb_release -cs 2>/dev/null) && [ -n
"$distribution" ] && [ "$distribution" != "n/a" ]; then
        : # nothing to do in this case
else
        distribution="unstable"
        echo >&2 "Using default distribution of 'unstable' in the changelog"
        echo >&2 "Install lsb-release or set \$KDEB_CHANGELOG_DIST explicitly"
fi

Personally, I set hardcoded in my kernel build-script as a workaround:

distribution="bookworm"

Gioele suggested me to enrich /etc/os-release with:

VERSION_ID=unstable <--- XXX: I prefer sid because of PRETTY_NAME and
it's shorter
VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm

In the end the file looks like:

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
ID=debian
VERSION_ID=sid
VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

...and this seems to work:

# lsb_release -cs
No LSB modules are available.
bookworm

Please, provide a solution not to break workflows that were successful
for years.

Thanks.

Best regards,
-Sedat-

[0] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/MAINTAINERS#n11005
[1] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/scripts/package/mkdebian#n123

Re: Bug#1008735: base-files: /etc/os-release should contain VERSION variables for testing and unstable

[Santiago Vila]

El 3/10/22 a las 11:55, Sedat Dilek escribió:
> VERSION_ID=sid
> VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm

This is "schizophrenic", so to speak, and I don't think it is a good idea.

I've simply added VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm.

The only caveat is that testing and unstable are sides of the same coin,
but this is already explained in /usr/share/doc/base-files/FAQ.

As a result, if you take the VERSION_CODENAME string and include it in a 
kernel version string somewhere, the meaning of such string is that the 
kernel image was created in either a bookworm or a sid distribution.

I think this is good enough for most purposes. If you need more 
fine-tuning, somebody should investigate what kind of magic lsb_release 
did in the past and reenable part of it.

Thanks.

Re: base-files: /etc/os-release should contain VERSION variables for testing and unstable

[Masahiro Yamada]

Hi Sedat,

Sorry for my late replay.


On Mon, Oct 3, 2022 at 6:56 PM Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [ CC linux-kbuild folks (see [0] ]



Can you give me more context of this email?




> Hi,
>
> I am using Debian/unstable AMD64 and doing Linux-kernel upstream
> development and testing.
>
> People using bindeb-pkg (mkdebian) from Linux-kernel sources
> (scripts/packages) to build and test their selfmade Debian kernels get
> a now a "n/a" for distribution.



Right, if I try the latest sid,
"lsb_release -cs" returns "n/a".
It returned "sid" before IIRC.


What was changed in Debian?
Any change in the lsb_release program?







>
> Background (see [1]):
>
> [ scripts/package/mkdebian ]
>
> # Try to determine distribution
> if [ -n "$KDEB_CHANGELOG_DIST" ]; then
>         distribution=$KDEB_CHANGELOG_DIST
> # In some cases lsb_release returns the codename as n/a, which breaks
> dpkg-parsechangelog
> elif distribution=$(lsb_release -cs 2>/dev/null) && [ -n
> "$distribution" ] && [ "$distribution" != "n/a" ]; then
>         : # nothing to do in this case
> else
>         distribution="unstable"
>         echo >&2 "Using default distribution of 'unstable' in the changelog"
>         echo >&2 "Install lsb-release or set \$KDEB_CHANGELOG_DIST explicitly"
> fi
>
> Personally, I set hardcoded in my kernel build-script as a workaround:
>
> distribution="bookworm"
>
> Gioele suggested me to enrich /etc/os-release with:
>
> VERSION_ID=unstable <--- XXX: I prefer sid because of PRETTY_NAME and
> it's shorter
> VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
>
> In the end the file looks like:
>
> PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid"
> NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
> ID=debian
> VERSION_ID=sid
> VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
> HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
> SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
> BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
>
> ...and this seems to work:
>
> # lsb_release -cs
> No LSB modules are available.
> bookworm
>
> Please, provide a solution not to break workflows that were successful
> for years.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Best regards,
> -Sedat-
>
> [0] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/MAINTAINERS#n11005
> [1] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/scripts/package/mkdebian#n123



-- 
Best Regards
Masahiro Yamada

Re: base-files: /etc/os-release should contain VERSION variables for testing and unstable

[Sedat Dilek]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 4409 bytes --]

On Thu, Oct 13, 2022 at 4:03 PM Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@kernel.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Sedat,
>
> Sorry for my late replay.
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 3, 2022 at 6:56 PM Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > [ CC linux-kbuild folks (see [0] ]
>
>
>
> Can you give me more context of this email?
>
>
>
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am using Debian/unstable AMD64 and doing Linux-kernel upstream
> > development and testing.
> >
> > People using bindeb-pkg (mkdebian) from Linux-kernel sources
> > (scripts/packages) to build and test their selfmade Debian kernels get
> > a now a "n/a" for distribution.
>
>
>
> Right, if I try the latest sid,
> "lsb_release -cs" returns "n/a".
> It returned "sid" before IIRC.
>
>
> What was changed in Debian?
> Any change in the lsb_release program?
>

Hi Masahiro San,

The Debian maintainer(s) changed the co-working of these packages:

root# dpkg -l | egrep 'base-files|lsb-release' | awk '/^ii/ {print $1
" " $2 " " $3}' | column -t
ii  base-files           12.3
ii  lsb-release          12.0-1
ii  lsb-release-minimal  12.0-1

My findings:
First, /usr/bin/lsb_release-11.4 (python) VS.
/usr/bin/lsb_release-12.0 (shell) - both files attached.
Second, version 12.0 checks now explicitly for values in /etc/os-release.
As a side note: All these changes were not mentioned in lsb-release
debian/changelog.

The easiest way to fix this is to add...

VERSION_ID=sid (or unstable)

...to /etc/os-release file.

Just for the sake of technical correctness:
"sid" or "unstable" is not a numerical value - it's a string.

In version 12.3 of base-files "VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm" was added on
users' request.

Last checks:

Original (base-files version 12.0):

[ /etc/os-release ]
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

root# lsb_release --all
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid
Release:        n/a
Codename:       bookworm

Modified:

[ /etc/os-release ]
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
VERSION_ID=sid
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

root# lsb_release --all
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid
Release:        sid
Codename:       bookworm

More comments see https://bugs.debian.org/1008735.

-Sedat-

>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > Background (see [1]):
> >
> > [ scripts/package/mkdebian ]
> >
> > # Try to determine distribution
> > if [ -n "$KDEB_CHANGELOG_DIST" ]; then
> >         distribution=$KDEB_CHANGELOG_DIST
> > # In some cases lsb_release returns the codename as n/a, which breaks
> > dpkg-parsechangelog
> > elif distribution=$(lsb_release -cs 2>/dev/null) && [ -n
> > "$distribution" ] && [ "$distribution" != "n/a" ]; then
> >         : # nothing to do in this case
> > else
> >         distribution="unstable"
> >         echo >&2 "Using default distribution of 'unstable' in the changelog"
> >         echo >&2 "Install lsb-release or set \$KDEB_CHANGELOG_DIST explicitly"
> > fi
> >
> > Personally, I set hardcoded in my kernel build-script as a workaround:
> >
> > distribution="bookworm"
> >
> > Gioele suggested me to enrich /etc/os-release with:
> >
> > VERSION_ID=unstable <--- XXX: I prefer sid because of PRETTY_NAME and
> > it's shorter
> > VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
> >
> > In the end the file looks like:
> >
> > PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid"
> > NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
> > ID=debian
> > VERSION_ID=sid
> > VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
> > HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
> > SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
> > BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
> >
> > ...and this seems to work:
> >
> > # lsb_release -cs
> > No LSB modules are available.
> > bookworm
> >
> > Please, provide a solution not to break workflows that were successful
> > for years.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > -Sedat-
> >
> > [0] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/MAINTAINERS#n11005
> > [1] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/scripts/package/mkdebian#n123
>
>
>
> --
> Best Regards
> Masahiro Yamada

[-- Attachment #2: lsb_release-11.4 --]
[-- Type: application/x-troff-man, Size: 3638 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #3: lsb_release-12.0 --]
[-- Type: application/octet-stream, Size: 2651 bytes --]

#!/bin/sh

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021-2022 Gioele Barabucci
# SPDX-License-Identifier: ISC

set -eu

export LC_ALL="C.UTF-8"

help () {
	cat <<-EOD
		Usage: lsb_release [options]

		Options:
		  -h, --help         show this help message and exit
		  -v, --version      show LSB modules this system supports
		  -i, --id           show distributor ID
		  -d, --description  show description of this distribution
		  -r, --release      show release number of this distribution
		  -c, --codename     show code name of this distribution
		  -a, --all          show all of the above information
		  -s, --short        show requested information in short format
	EOD
	exit
}

show_id=false
show_desc=false
show_release=false
show_codename=false
short_format=false

options=$(getopt --name lsb_release -o hvidrcas -l help,version,id,description,release,codename,all,short -- "$@") || exit 2
eval set -- "$options"
while [ $# -gt 0 ] ; do
	case "$1" in
		-h|--help) help ;;
		-v|--version) ;;
		-i|--id) show_id=true ;;
		-d|--description) show_desc=true ;;
		-r|--release) show_release=true ;;
		-c|--codename) show_codename=true ;;
		-a|--all) show_id=true ; show_desc=true ; show_release=true ; show_codename=true ;;
		-s|--short) short_format=true ;;
		*) break  ;;
	esac
	shift
done

display_line () {
	label="$1"
	value="$2"

	if $short_format ; then
		printf "%s\n" "$value"
	else
		printf "%s:\t%s\n" "$label" "$value"
	fi
}

# Load release info from standard identification data files
[ -f /usr/lib/os-release ] && os_release=/usr/lib/os-release
[ -f /etc/os-release ] && os_release=/etc/os-release
[ "${LSB_OS_RELEASE-x}" != "x" ] && [ -f "$LSB_OS_RELEASE" ] && os_release="$LSB_OS_RELEASE"
[ "${os_release-x}" != "x" ] && . "$os_release"

# Mimic the output of Debian's Python-based lsb_release
# Capitalize ID
: "${ID=}"
ID="$(printf "%s" "$ID" | cut -c1 | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]')$(printf "%s" "$ID" | cut -c2-)"
# Use NAME if set and different from ID only in capitalization.
if [ "${NAME-x}" != "x" ] ; then
	lower_case_id=$(printf "%s" "$ID" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
	lower_case_name=$(printf "%s" "$NAME" | tr '[:upper:]'  '[:lower:]')
	if [ "${lower_case_id}" = "${lower_case_name}" ] ; then
		ID="$NAME"
	fi
fi

# Generate minimal standard-conform output (if stdout is a TTY).
[ -t 1 ] && echo "No LSB modules are available." >& 2

if $show_id ; then
	display_line "Distributor ID" "${ID:-n/a}"
fi

if $show_desc ; then
	display_line "Description" "${PRETTY_NAME:-n/a}"
fi

if $show_release ; then
	display_line "Release" "${VERSION_ID:-n/a}"
fi

if $show_codename ; then
	display_line "Codename" "${VERSION_CODENAME:-n/a}"
fi

Re: base-files: /etc/os-release should contain VERSION variables for testing and unstable

[Gioele Barabucci]

Dear Masahiro, dear Sedat,

[Debian bug #1008735 removed from CC]

On 13/10/22 16:02, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 3, 2022 at 6:56 PM Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Can you give me more context of this email?
> 
>> I am using Debian/unstable AMD64 and doing Linux-kernel upstream
>> development and testing.
>>
>> People using bindeb-pkg (mkdebian) from Linux-kernel sources
>> (scripts/packages) to build and test their selfmade Debian kernels get
>> a now a "n/a" for distribution.
> 
> Right, if I try the latest sid,
> "lsb_release -cs" returns "n/a".
> It returned "sid" before IIRC.
> 
> What was changed in Debian?
> Any change in the lsb_release program?


A quick summary from the upstream developer (me) of the new 
`lsb_release` implementation being rolled out in Debian.

Debian dropped the legacy `lsb_release` package. Now the `lsb_release` 
command is provided by `lsb-release-minimal`.

`lsb-release-minimal` relies on `/etc/os-release` to provide LSB 
information in a format that is byte-for-byte compatible with the 
`lsb_release` specifications.

The issue you experienced is due to Debian's `/etc/os-release` (provided 
by the `base-files` package) not contain all the necessary information. 
See <https://bugs.debian.org/1008735>.

The situation is now changing. The maintainer of `base-files` has added 
VERSION_CODENAME ("bookworm" for both unstable and testing).

However VERSION_ID (used for `lsb_release --release`) has not been added 
yet. This is being tracked at <https://bugs.debian.org/1021663>.

Until #1021663 is fixed, `lsb_release -rc` will return the following 
info in both unstable and testing.

     Release:   n/a
     Codename:  bookworm

A workaround to get the old behavior is:

     rm /etc/os-release
     cp /usr/lib/os-release /etc/os-release
     echo "VERSION_ID=unstable" >> /etc/os-release
     echo "VERSION_CODENAME=sid" >> /etc/os-release

Regards,

--
Gioele Barabucci

Re: base-files: /etc/os-release should contain VERSION variables for testing and unstable

[Masahiro Yamada]

On Fri, Oct 14, 2022 at 7:10 PM Gioele Barabucci <gioele@svario.it> wrote:
>
> Dear Masahiro, dear Sedat,
>
> [Debian bug #1008735 removed from CC]
>
> On 13/10/22 16:02, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> > On Mon, Oct 3, 2022 at 6:56 PM Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Can you give me more context of this email?
> >
> >> I am using Debian/unstable AMD64 and doing Linux-kernel upstream
> >> development and testing.
> >>
> >> People using bindeb-pkg (mkdebian) from Linux-kernel sources
> >> (scripts/packages) to build and test their selfmade Debian kernels get
> >> a now a "n/a" for distribution.
> >
> > Right, if I try the latest sid,
> > "lsb_release -cs" returns "n/a".
> > It returned "sid" before IIRC.
> >
> > What was changed in Debian?
> > Any change in the lsb_release program?
>
>
> A quick summary from the upstream developer (me) of the new
> `lsb_release` implementation being rolled out in Debian.
>
> Debian dropped the legacy `lsb_release` package. Now the `lsb_release`
> command is provided by `lsb-release-minimal`.
>
> `lsb-release-minimal` relies on `/etc/os-release` to provide LSB
> information in a format that is byte-for-byte compatible with the
> `lsb_release` specifications.
>
> The issue you experienced is due to Debian's `/etc/os-release` (provided
> by the `base-files` package) not contain all the necessary information.
> See <https://bugs.debian.org/1008735>.
>
> The situation is now changing. The maintainer of `base-files` has added
> VERSION_CODENAME ("bookworm" for both unstable and testing).
>
> However VERSION_ID (used for `lsb_release --release`) has not been added
> yet. This is being tracked at <https://bugs.debian.org/1021663>.
>
> Until #1021663 is fixed, `lsb_release -rc` will return the following
> info in both unstable and testing.
>
>      Release:   n/a
>      Codename:  bookworm



Thanks for the pointer.
It sounds reasonable.

Also, it was good to know that no action is needed
for the kernel tree.

Thanks.

>
> A workaround to get the old behavior is:
>
>      rm /etc/os-release
>      cp /usr/lib/os-release /etc/os-release
>      echo "VERSION_ID=unstable" >> /etc/os-release
>      echo "VERSION_CODENAME=sid" >> /etc/os-release
>
> Regards,
>
> --
> Gioele Barabucci



-- 
Best Regards
Masahiro Yamada

Re: base-files: /etc/os-release should contain VERSION variables for testing and unstable

[Sedat Dilek]

On Fri, Oct 14, 2022 at 12:10 PM Gioele Barabucci <gioele@svario.it> wrote:
>
> Dear Masahiro, dear Sedat,
>
> [Debian bug #1008735 removed from CC]
>
> On 13/10/22 16:02, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> > On Mon, Oct 3, 2022 at 6:56 PM Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Can you give me more context of this email?
> >
> >> I am using Debian/unstable AMD64 and doing Linux-kernel upstream
> >> development and testing.
> >>
> >> People using bindeb-pkg (mkdebian) from Linux-kernel sources
> >> (scripts/packages) to build and test their selfmade Debian kernels get
> >> a now a "n/a" for distribution.
> >
> > Right, if I try the latest sid,
> > "lsb_release -cs" returns "n/a".
> > It returned "sid" before IIRC.
> >
> > What was changed in Debian?
> > Any change in the lsb_release program?
>
>
> A quick summary from the upstream developer (me) of the new
> `lsb_release` implementation being rolled out in Debian.
>
> Debian dropped the legacy `lsb_release` package. Now the `lsb_release`
> command is provided by `lsb-release-minimal`.
>
> `lsb-release-minimal` relies on `/etc/os-release` to provide LSB
> information in a format that is byte-for-byte compatible with the
> `lsb_release` specifications.
>
> The issue you experienced is due to Debian's `/etc/os-release` (provided
> by the `base-files` package) not contain all the necessary information.
> See <https://bugs.debian.org/1008735>.
>
> The situation is now changing. The maintainer of `base-files` has added
> VERSION_CODENAME ("bookworm" for both unstable and testing).
>
> However VERSION_ID (used for `lsb_release --release`) has not been added
> yet. This is being tracked at <https://bugs.debian.org/1021663>.
>
> Until #1021663 is fixed, `lsb_release -rc` will return the following
> info in both unstable and testing.
>
>      Release:   n/a
>      Codename:  bookworm
>
> A workaround to get the old behavior is:
>
>      rm /etc/os-release
>      cp /usr/lib/os-release /etc/os-release
>      echo "VERSION_ID=unstable" >> /etc/os-release
>      echo "VERSION_CODENAME=sid" >> /etc/os-release
>

Thanks for your clarifications and information.

Adding your workaround (with which I agree and looks sane to me):

I still see some issues:

# lsb_release --all 2>/dev/null
Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid
Release:        unstable
Codename:       sid

# lsb_release --codename --short 2>/dev/null
sid

I bet we need to change PRETTY_NAME as well and...

# cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
ID=debian
VERSION_ID=unstable
VERSION_CODENAME=sid
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

( For Debian/testing "testing" and "bookworm" sounds reasonable to me
(see Debian Bug #1021663). )
( Guess Debian/stable then should contain "stable" and "buster"? )

...who cares about?

# cat /etc/debian_version
bookworm/sid

I am a long user of Debian/unstable AMD64 and I was seeing on boot,
background of graphical login-manager and/or any info-tool like
KDE/kinfocenter etc.

Debian GNU/Linux $codename_of_current_testing/sid (current: bookworm/sid)

When you want to change all that "old behaviour" then do it for all
releases available on Debian, please.

-Sedat-

Re: base-files: /etc/os-release should contain VERSION variables for testing and unstable

[Gioele Barabucci]

On 15/10/22 10:56, Sedat Dilek wrote:
> # lsb_release --all 2>/dev/null
> Distributor ID: Debian
> Description:    Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid
> Release:        unstable
> Codename:       sid
> 
> [...]
> 
> ( Guess Debian/stable then should contain "stable" and "buster"? )
Stable currently says "Release: 11.5" and "Codename: bullseye" (that's 
the normal behavior for stable releases).

--
Gioele Barabucci