sup-mail broken and unusable after Bionic to Focal upgrade
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
sup-mail (Debian) |
Fix Released
|
Unknown
|
|||
sup-mail (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
Iain Parris | ||
Focal |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
Iain Parris |
Bug Description
[Impact]
A user with the "sup-mail" package installed on Bionic (or Eoan) who upgrades to Focal will find that "sup-mail" becomes completely unusable after upgrading to Focal, i.e., immediately crashes at run-time.
This is because sup-mail is not packaged in Focal, and sup-mail 0.22.1 (version packaged in Bionic and Eoan) is not compatible with Ruby 2.7, the new system Ruby version in Focal.
sup-mail is fixed and packaged in Groovy, so SRU fix would be to similarly package sup-mail in Focal.
[Test Case]
The sup-mail package is not currently packaged in Focal.
So to simulate a Bionic to Focal upgrade, install the Bionic sup-mail package manually on Focal, and observe that sup-mail is unusable because it will immediately crash at runtime:
$ wget http://
$ sudo dpkg -i ./sup-mail_
$ sudo apt -f install
$ sup-mail
Crashes immediately with an error like:
--- ArgumentError from thread: main
wrong number of arguments (given 2, expected 1)
/usr/lib/
To resolve: install fixed sup-mail package version 1.0-3 on Focal (e.g., from Groovy). Observe that there is now no crash on Focal after launching "sup-mail".
Note to SRU members: unblock sup-mail package to make sure installability tests are run on britney.
[Regression Potential]
Very low. The "sup-mail" package is currently not packaged for Focal, and is completely unusable after upgrading from Bionic (or Eoan) to Focal: a 100% repeatable immediate crash at runtime when running on Focal. Because sup-mail is currently broken and unusable after upgrading to Focal, no greater regression is possible.
"sup-mail" is a leaf package, i.e., no other packages depend on on it. So introducing a working version of sup-mail as a new package into Focal would be very low risk to break any other package.
Care will be required in choosing a version string for Focal, to ensure that it is no greater than the version string used in Groovy, in order to avoid future upgrade issues to Groovy.
[Other Info]
- I believe that introducing sup-mail into Focal would be in scope as a SRU, due to a low potential for regressing existing installations but a high potential for improving the user experience. Based on criteria as documented for SRU "Other safe cases": <https:/
- I am willing to commit to ensuring that sup-mail is well-maintained in Ubuntu in future, and have subscribed myself to be notified of all new sup-mail Ubuntu bugs.
- Upstream now also has new maintainers (project & Debian package):
(1) Upstream project now has two new maintainers: see <https:/
(2) Upstream Debian package maintained by the Debian Ruby Team now has two new named uploaders: see <https:/
- "sup-mail" is packaged in Bionic, Eoan, and Groovy - but not in Focal. This is because upstream sup-mail 0.22.1-3 was removed from Debian unstable on 2020-04-07 due to FTBFS with lack of Ruby 2.7 support. Then a new fixed version of sup-mail 1.0-2 was reintroduced to Debian Unstable on 2020-07-22, then sup-mail 1.0-3 to Debian Testing on 2020-07-27. sup-mail was therefore not in Debian at the time of Focal's Debian Import Freeze.
- Upstream Debian bug for crash on Ruby 2.7 is now resolved with the new sup-mail release. <https:/
- I have also resolved a long-standing minor Debian packaging bug with sup-mail 1.0-3: <https:/
- Raised as SRU, following IRC discussion on 2020-07-23 in #ubuntu-devel with ~lucaskanashiro (IRC nick kanashiro) and ~racb (IRC nick rbasak, part of SRU team). After my commitment to keep sup-mail well-maintained in Ubuntu in future, both are provisionally supportive of SRU to Focal, subject to discussion with the wider SRU Team. IRC logs: https:/
Changed in sup-mail (Ubuntu): | |
status: | New → Incomplete |
description: | updated |
summary: |
- sup-mail crash after Bionic to Focal upgrade + sup-mail broken and unusable after Bionic to Focal upgrade |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
Changed in sup-mail (Ubuntu): | |
status: | Incomplete → Confirmed |
Changed in sup-mail (Ubuntu): | |
assignee: | Thomas Ward (teward) → Iain Parris (ipv2) |
Changed in sup-mail (Ubuntu): | |
status: | In Progress → Fix Released |
importance: | Undecided → Medium |
Changed in sup-mail (Ubuntu Focal): | |
importance: | Undecided → Medium |
tags: | added: packaging |
tags: | added: upgrade-software-version |
Changed in sup-mail (Debian): | |
status: | Unknown → Fix Released |
Changed in sup-mail (Ubuntu Focal): | |
assignee: | nobody → Thomas Ward (teward) |
Changed in sup-mail (Ubuntu Focal): | |
assignee: | Thomas Ward (teward) → nobody |
status: | In Progress → Confirmed |
Waiting a few days (i.e., with bug at status "Incomplete") until sup-mail package accepted into Groovy (currently in Groovy Proposed).