Configuration files are backwards incompatible since 1.0.1+git20150119-1

[Gert van Dijk]

The author of apt-dater decided to switch from plain text configuration files to XML [1] in 1.0.2 [2]. However, this package incorporates 1.0.1 with some commits that inadvertently introduced this backwards incompatible change as well to 1.0.1.

After upgrading Ubuntu to 15.04 I have to reconfigure all of my apt-dater configuration files without a notice in the changelog, README or any warning provided. Also the manpages are not updated accordingly and still describe the 'old' .conf configuration format.

Either provide a configuration converter to upgrade or revert the commits introducing this backwards incompatible change. I understand some build bug was intended to be fixed by this [3], but I think this is much more painful than expected by most users. For Debian sid, this situation is fine, but not for Ubuntu stable I guess.

[1] https://github.com/DE-IBH/apt-dater/commit/3a84efadc2f969bcc4865d57f0515d86c4d24567
[2] https://github.com/DE-IBH/apt-dater/commit/794a62961674ea3cd17acd2c602060c0b5bd3c25
[3] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=767594

[Gert van Dijk (gertvdijk)]

I discovered that apt-dater is completely broken in the current state. Even with a valid XML host configuration file as generated, e.g.

<hosts>
  <group name="Localnet">
    <host name="localhost" comment="Edit ~/.config/apt-dater/hosts.xml!"/>
  </group>
</hosts>

It will not be able to use that host:

ssh: Could not resolve hostname (null): Name or service not known

Also when adding hosts with their FQDN:

  <group name="test servers">
    <host name="srv1.test.domain.tld" />
  </group>

Script started, file is /home/gert/.local/share/apt-dater/history/srv1.test.domain.tld:0/1430677527-19897/typescript
ssh: Could not resolve hostname (null): Name or service not known

also when manually overriding the ssh hostname with ssh-host="srv1.test.domain.tld", it doesn't work still with the same error message.

The only viable option I see is downgrading apt-dater to 1.0.1 stable or 0.9.0.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.