severity 315784 serious
thanks

With packages ranging from woody to experimental (majority is sarge), and 
upgrading apt, dpkg and some others to etch, I got into the situation that 
no md5sum commmand was on the system.  I feel dependencies should be able 
to avoid that situation.

Should dpkg Pre-Depend on coreutils >= 5.93-5 or what?

Below is some IRC conversation that convinced me that this is RC.  
(deboostrap cc:d on request of mrvn)

cheers
-- vbi

>>>>>>>
<cmot> very, very stupid Q (probably) - why is there no /usr/bin/md5sum on 
my system?  Isn't that a command that I should be able to expect on my 
system?
<cmot> (coreutils has /usr/bin/md5sum.textutils - shouldn't there be a 
symlink or whatever?)
<noshadow> cmot: which release? in sarge it should be in the dpkg package
<godog> cmot: indeed /usr/bin/md5sum here is owned by coreutils
<cmot> Hmmm.  I have some mix with files from woody to experimental.
<cmot> I recently upgraded apt, dpkg & co to etch, so I guess that's the 
problem.
<cmot> Yep.  coreutils from sarge, dpkg from etch.
<cmot> Should this be a bug?
<vorlon> probably.  if possible, something should have a depends: or a 
conflicts: that prevents you from getting your system into that state.
<asuffield> md5sum is Essential, it's definitely a bug of some kind
<asuffield> you're not supposed to *ever* lose those
<noshadow> though it's better to err on this side than to make upgrade paths 
impossible
<cmot> Hmm.  coreutils/testing doesn't have /usr/bin/md5sum either, it seems 
to me?
<godog> etch's coreutils can also check /usr/bin/md5sum and symlink 
appropriately
<asuffield> godog: that's postinst. Essential packages have to work without 
being configured
<godog> asuffield: right, thanks for spotting that
<godog> cmot: coreutils 5.2.1-2.1 ?
<cmot> 5.2.1-2
<asuffield> why on earth did it get removed from dpkg? that's the problem 
right there
<noshadow> asuffield: in what sense "essential"?
<cmot> But I just upgraded to 5.2.1-2.1 and it's only md5sum.textutils, 
still.
<cmot> #289369, btw
<godog> noshadow: as in "Essential: yes" I think
<asuffield> grep-available -FPackage -sPackage,Essential coreutils
<asuffield> Package: coreutils
<asuffield> Essential: yes
<asuffield> it's a fairly simple and stupid problem, dpkg should not have 
dropped md5sum until coreutils had released with it
<vorlon> or it should pre-depend on the new version
<asuffield> hmm, I suppose that would work, but it's kinda icky
<asuffield> I'd have been more inclined to do it with Replaces
<vorlon> nah, pre-depends are de rigueur in essential packages
<asuffield> anyway, somebody go file a bug about it
<asuffield> that one's RC
<cmot> And #313258
<cmot> One is minor, one is wishlist.  I'll merge the two and upgrade to - 
what? serious?
<godog> we should define bts arithmetics :)
<cmot> Hmm.  Before I do that - anybody looked at coreutils/unstable?
<cmot> godog: :-)
<godog> 5.93-5 has /usr/bin/md5sum
<cmot> Ah.  So dpkg just pre-depend on the new coreutils?
<cmot> I'll file a serious bug on dpkg, then (if there isn't one already; 
haven't looked yet).
<mrvn> cmot: that would suck because it breaks (c)debootstrap
<mrvn> asuffield: replaces only works with a versioned conflicts
<cmot> mrvn: Hmm.  I'll file anyway, but I'll include that remark.
<cmot> md5sum got to be there...
<mrvn> dpkg should just move it to /usr/lib/dpkg till after etch. :)
<mrvn> cmot: can you Debugs-CC the (c)debootstrap packages lists?
<cmot> mrvn: sure, which list is that?
<mrvn> cmot: something like <package>@packages.debian.org isn't it?
<cmot> The @packages.d.o ones?
<cmot> Will do.
<mrvn> thanks.
<cmot> And coreutils@packages, too.
<mrvn> can't hurt
<cmot> Hmmm.  dpkg already has #315784, so I guess I'll just upgrade that 
one.
<<<<<<<

-- 
She liked him; he was a man of many qualities, even if most of them were 
bad.