Activity log for bug #1937016

Date Who What changed Old value New value Message
2021-07-21 06:44:45 Christian Ehrhardt  bug added bug
2021-07-21 06:44:54 Christian Ehrhardt  bug task added ndpi (Ubuntu)
2021-07-21 06:46:05 Christian Ehrhardt  summary [RM] Remove ntopng and maybe ndpi as well [RM] Remove ntopng from Impish - and maybe ndpi as well
2021-07-21 06:46:18 Christian Ehrhardt  summary [RM] Remove ntopng from Impish - and maybe ndpi as well [RM] Remove src:ntopng from Impish - and maybe src:ndpi as well
2021-07-21 06:46:51 Christian Ehrhardt  description Hi, src:ntopng - program to monitor traffic src:ndpi - library only used in/for ntopng There were issues around s390x failing an binary removals, but that isn't all of it. Just from history one would expect this to build only for some architectures, but on those to be fine and migrating. What I found was a bit more complex. Bionic (3.2+dfsg1-1): amd64, arm64, i386 Focal (3.8+dfsg1-2.1build3): amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x G/H/I (3.8.1+dfsg1-1build2): amd64, armhf H/I (3.8.1+dfsg1-1build3) bdep ok on all but s390x, all FTBFS with ndpi 3.4 Let me try to summarize as a timeline: # December 2019 Uploads of ndpi 3.0 and ntopng 3.8.1 by the maintainer - things seemed to work back then and migrated to release. # Summer 2020 It was found that s390x has problems and that caused quite some work ending in s390x to be officially not supported. 1. Michael Hudson-Doyle <michael.hudson@canonical.com> Tue, Jun 9, 2020, 4:35 AM There is a mess around ndpi / ntopng. Debian started a transition to ndpi 3 some time ago but it ftbfs on some arches and the maintainer seems to have given up. Some guy called "Dimitri" tried to engage with upstream on the big endian problems: https://github.com/ntop/nDPI/issues/843 2. Steve Langasek <steve.langasek@canonical.com> Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 8:08 AM ntopng and ndpi: the ndpi removal was based on per-arch build failures. But this means any new upload of ndpi to Debian that does /not/ fix these per-arch build failures will still be migratable to the release pocket, with a reduced set of supported archs. So there's not actually any reason to do a sourceful removal of ndpi, as opposed to a removal of the binaries on the regressed archs. So I've restored both ndpi and ntopng, which should both be releasable on a reduced set of archs. # Summer 2020 in Debian The same reasons blocked ntopng in Debian and it was eventually removed for not getting enough help to migrate => https://tracker.debian.org/news/1154992/ntopng-removed-from-testing/ # Winter 2020/2021 nDPI had CVEs and a few friendly helpers bumped that to 3.4 in Debian which also got synced. See this update on the current FTFBS bug by Daniel Bungert here: => https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=977805#10 --- # What now? If you only look at build logs one thinks "hey last time that built" but those (Focal / Debian-unstable) all were against the older ndpi 3.0. So currently this isn't about s390x anymore (which was officially stated as not supported and ignored since then). It is about ndpi 3.4 making it an FTBFS. So either we get it back to build and migrate or we also need to consider to remove it like it is in Debian. I've had a look and found that there is a ntopng version released after ndpi 3.4 that makes it work (passes the FTFBS). I have confirmed that ntopng 3.8.1 from git fails the same way as our FTBFS. And 4.2 from git works. So we could update this to 4.2 to make it pass one might think - I tried. I thought "While I have no expertise in this package bumping it as-is might provide more function than removing it" But while checking how much effort it might be I also found that this is a DFSG without an easily followable documentation what needs to be re-packaged. Furthermore there are some changes to the fonts-awesome usage which also have an open bug. => https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=989115 And then while try-building it ran into other issues that seemed resolvable, but need someone with a use-case for the software to try and verify it is fine. Overall that is the final nail in the coffin on removal>update. So I decidede to filed this launchpad bug to explain all this and ask for a removal to resolve the situation for now. Bonus: One has to remember that ndpi only exits for ntopng it seems to have no other dependency - so if removing ntopng why keep ndpi? $ reverse-depends --release impish src:ndpi Reverse-Depends * ntopng (for libndpi3.0) This is up to the archive-admins who resolve this if they want the lib to be removed as well or keep it around without a consumer. Hi, src:ntopng - program to monitor traffic src:ndpi - library only used in/for ntopng There were issues around s390x failing an binary removals, but that isn't all of it. Just from history one would expect this to build only for some architectures, but on those to be fine and migrating. What I found was a bit more complex. Bionic (3.2+dfsg1-1): amd64, arm64, i386 Focal (3.8+dfsg1-2.1build3): amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x G/H/I (3.8.1+dfsg1-1build2): amd64, armhf H/I (3.8.1+dfsg1-1build3) bdep ok on all but s390x, all FTBFS with ndpi 3.4 Let me try to summarize as a timeline: # December 2019 Uploads of ndpi 3.0 and ntopng 3.8.1 by the maintainer - things seemed to work back then and migrated to release. # Summer 2020 It was found that s390x has problems and that caused quite some work ending in s390x to be officially not supported. 1. Michael Hudson-Doyle <michael.hudson@canonical.com>    Tue, Jun 9, 2020, 4:35 AM    There is a mess around ndpi / ntopng. Debian started a transition to ndpi 3    some time ago but it ftbfs on some arches and the maintainer seems to have    given up. Some guy called "Dimitri" tried to engage with upstream on the big    endian problems: https://github.com/ntop/nDPI/issues/843 2. Steve Langasek <steve.langasek@canonical.com>    Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 8:08 AM    ntopng and ndpi: the ndpi removal was based on per-arch build failures.    But this means any new upload of ndpi to Debian that does /not/ fix these    per-arch build failures will still be migratable to the release pocket,    with a reduced set of supported archs. So there's not actually any    reason to do a sourceful removal of ndpi, as opposed to a removal of the    binaries on the regressed archs. So I've restored both ndpi and ntopng,    which should both be releasable on a reduced set of archs. # Summer 2020 in Debian The same reasons blocked ntopng in Debian and it was eventually removed for not getting enough help to migrate => https://tracker.debian.org/news/1154992/ntopng-removed-from-testing/ # Winter 2020/2021 nDPI had CVEs and a few friendly helpers bumped that to 3.4 in Debian which also got synced. See this update on the current FTFBS bug by Daniel Bungert here: => https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=977805#10 --- # What now? If you only look at build logs one thinks "hey last time that built" but those (Focal / Debian-unstable) all were against the older ndpi 3.0. So currently this isn't about s390x anymore (which was officially stated as not supported and ignored since then). It is about ndpi 3.4 making it an FTBFS. So either we get it back to build and migrate or we also need to consider to remove it like it is in Debian. I've had a look and found that there is a ntopng version released after ndpi 3.4 that makes it work (passes the FTFBS). I have confirmed that ntopng 3.8.1 from git fails the same way as our FTBFS. And 4.2 from git works. So we could update this to 4.2 to make it pass one might think - I tried. I thought "While I have no expertise in this package bumping it as-is might provide more function than removing it" But while checking how much effort it might be I also found that this is a DFSG without an easily followable documentation what needs to be re-packaged. Furthermore there are some changes to the fonts-awesome usage which also have an open bug.   => https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=989115 And then while try-building it ran into other issues that seemed resolvable, but need someone with a use-case for the software to try and verify it is fine. Overall that is the final nail in the coffin on removal>update. So I decidede to filed this launchpad bug to explain all this and ask for a removal to resolve the situation for now. Bonus: One has to remember that ndpi only exits for ntopng it seems to have no other dependency. $ reverse-depends --release impish src:ntopng $ reverse-depends --release impish src:ndpi Reverse-Depends * ntopng (for libndpi3.0) So if removing ntopng why keep ndpi? This is up to the archive-admins who resolve this if they want the lib to be removed as well or keep it around without a consumer.
2021-07-21 06:47:31 Christian Ehrhardt  bug added subscriber Ubuntu Package Archive Administrators
2021-07-21 06:47:48 Christian Ehrhardt  tags update-excuse
2021-08-27 00:39:00 Steve Langasek ntopng (Ubuntu): status New Fix Released
2021-08-27 00:48:27 Steve Langasek ndpi (Ubuntu): status New Fix Released