Subject: bug#294: task-kde-desktop silently pulls in unattended-upgrades

From: Olaf Meeuwissen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2019 20:23:48 +0900

Package: tasksel
Version: 3.48+devuan1

This came up on the mailing list[1] and Katolaz asked if I could submit
a bug report against this package so it would not be forgotten.

 [1]: https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/thread/20190214.170424.6845e4be.en.html

The general consensus on the mailing list was that unattended-upgrades
should not "slip in a standard Devuan install unnoticed".

On the mailing list I provided details based on ASCII but I figured it
would be more useful to look at beowulf.  The following is based on an
up-to-date (2019-02-17) Docker image[2].

 [2]: docker pull registry.gitlab.com/paddy-hack/devuan/slim:beowulf

First off, I must say that the approach I used on the mailing list is
flawed.  It does not handle the case of alternatives correctly as it
chases down dependency relations for *all* listed alternatives.  This
leads to false positives.

# All desktop tasks listed all desktop tasks as their dependencies in
# the case Recommends: are allowed :-/

So I followed a slightly different approach and did dry-run installs in
my devuan/slim:beowulf Docker image.

After installing tasksel, I ran

  tasksel --list-tasks \
    | awk '$2 ~ /desktop/ { print $2 }' \
    | while read task; do
        package=$(tasksel --task-packages $task)
        apt-get --dry-run install --install-recommends \
                $package > $package.install-recommends-dry-run
      done
  grep -l unattended-upgrades *.install-recommends-dry-run

That yielded

  task-kde-desktop.install-recommends-dry-run

So the KDE desktop task is the only supported Devuan desktop tasks that
would "slip in unattended-upgrades unnoticed".

I've attached the output of

  apt-cache depends --recurse --no-suggests --no-conflicts --no-breaks \
            --no-enhances --no-replaces task-kde-desktop

so you check for yourself but unattended-upgrades gets pulled in via a
rather complex dependency chain that may not be easy to break :-/

# Much, much more so with beowulf than in ascii.

I think the easiest way to get out of this "mess" is to downgrade the
dependency on unattended-upgrades from a Recommends: to a Suggests: in
python3-software-properties.

Hope this helps,
--
Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2            FSF Associate Member since 2004-01-27
 GnuPG key: F84A2DD9/B3C0 2F47 EA19 64F4 9F13  F43E B8A4 A88A F84A 2DD9
 Support Free Software                        https://my.fsf.org/donate
 Join the Free Software Foundation              https://my.fsf.org/join

---

From: Mark Hindley <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2019 13:34:55 +0100

Olaf,

I am doing some work on tasksel for beowulf and saw this bug.
It still appears to be present.

> python3-software-properties.

The problem with that is we don't currently fork that pacakge.

The other way might be to not include apper. I don't use KDE myself and have no
idea if that would be more of a problem? Do you use the desktop?

Best wishes

Mark

---

From: Olaf Meeuwissen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2019 20:36:30 +0900

Hi Mark,

Sorry for the belated follow-up.  I've been travelling.

> idea if that would be more of a problem? Do you use the desktop?

I don't use KDE myself.

If downgrading the apper Recommends: to a Suggests: on task-kde-desktop
prevents pulling in unattended-upgrades, I guess that would be fine.
Users that want apper can always install it later themselves.

It's just that doing it on python3-software-properties would be less of
an issue for users of apper.  Of course, if apper provides some optional
functionality that relies on unattended-upgrades that users want, they'd
be in a similar boat and need to install that themselves.

Anyway, forking python3-software-properties just to change an optional
dependency is probably overkill.

Hope this helps,

---

From: Mark Hindley <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2023 14:05:43 +0000

Control: reassign -1 python3-software-properties
Control: tags -1 debian
Control: forwarded -1 https://bugs.debian.org/447701

Olaf,

> python3-software-properties.

This has now happened in Debian: see #447701.

Mark

---

From: "Devuan bug Tracking System" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2023 14:22:05 +0000

This is an automatic notification regarding your bug report
which was filed against the python3-software-properties package:

#294: task-kde-desktop silently pulls in unattended-upgrades

It has been closed by Mark Hindley <[email-masked]>.

Their explanation is attached below along with your original report.
If this explanation is unsatisfactory and you have not received a
better one in a separate message then please contact Mark Hindley <[email-masked]> by
replying to this email.

-- 
294: https://bugs.devuan.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=294
Devuan Bug Tracking System
Contact [email-masked] with problems

Subject: Fixed in Debian #447701
From: Mark Hindley <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2023 14:20:17 +0000

Version: 0.99.30-1

Subject: task-kde-desktop silently pulls in unattended-upgrades
From: Olaf Meeuwissen <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2019 20:23:48 +0900

Package: tasksel
Version: 3.48+devuan1

  tasksel --list-tasks \

That yielded

Hope this helps,

---

From: Olaf Meeuwissen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2023 11:08:25 +0900

Hi Mark,

> This has now happened in Debian: see #447701.

Thanks for cleaning out the old bug reports!

I checked the dependencies of python3-software-properties (on daedalus)
and it has neither Recommends: nor Suggests: anymore.

Checking a --dry-run install of task-kde-desktop (on daedalus) following
the approach from my original bug report no longer tries to install the
unattended-upgrades.

Finally fixed then :-)
--
Olaf Meeuwissen