[noble] two versions of perl-modules are published, breaking pbuilder/debootstrap

[Martin Pitt]

For the last two weeks, building noble VM images for our CI has been broken. Most of it was uninstallability due to the xz reset, but for the last three days, `pbuilder --create` has failed [2] because it gets perl and perl-modules-5.38 in two different versions:

2024-04-08 08:47:08 URL:http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/p/perl/perl-base_5.38.2-3.2build2_amd64.deb [1822564/1822564] -> "/var/cache/pbuilder/aptcache//perl-base_5.38.2-3.2build2_amd64.deb" [1]
2024-04-08 08:47:09 URL:http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/p/perl/perl-modules-5.38_5.38.2-3_all.deb [3110080/3110080] -> "/var/cache/pbuilder/aptcache//perl-modules-5.38_5.38.2-3_all.deb" [1]

and then trying to configure the packages blows up. The root cause is that perl-modules has *two* versions published:

# curl -s http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz|xzgrep -A5 'Package: perl-modules-'
Package: perl-modules-5.38
Architecture: all
Version: 5.38.2-3.2build2
Multi-Arch: foreign
Priority: optional
Build-Essential: yes
--
Package: perl-modules-5.38
Architecture: all
Version: 5.38.2-3
Multi-Arch: foreign
Priority: optional
Build-Essential: yes

While apt is clever enough to pick the right one, debootstrap isn't. Can you please remove the old perl-modules-5.38 5.38.2-3 from noble?

Thanks!

[1] https://github.com/cockpit-project/bots/issues/6147
[2] https://cockpit-logs.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/image-refresh-ubuntu-stable-02cafde3-20240407-074108/log.html

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Aside from curl this can be reproduced most quickly with

  sudo /usr/sbin/debootstrap --include=build-essential noble /tmp/n http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

Errors were encountered while processing:
 perl
 libdpkg-perl
 libperl5.38t64:amd64
 dpkg-dev
 build-essential

These are all ultimately due to

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl:
 perl depends on perl-modules-5.38 (>= 5.38.2-3.2build2); however:
  Version of perl-modules-5.38 on system is 5.38.2-3.

dpkg: error processing package perl (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

I wonder where that comes from -- https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/perl/+publishinghistory says that 5.38.2-3 was deleted, but only from noble-updates. In noble proper it is merely "superseded". https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/perl/5.38.2-3 doesn't show it being published anyway, and it's not in https://ubuntu-archive-team.ubuntu.com/nbs.html either.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Yay, today this is finally fixed, pbuilder creation and building a noble VM image finally works again \o/ Thanks!