Comment 0 for bug 1888749

[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 0.22.1 (version packaged in Bionic and Eoan) is not compatible with Ruby 2.7, the new system Ruby version 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://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/s/sup-mail/sup-mail_0.22.1-2_all.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i ./sup-mail_0.22.1-2_all.deb
$ 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/ruby/vendor_ruby/sup/logger.rb:74:in `block (2 levels) in <module:LogsStuff>'

To resolve: install fixed sup-mail package version 1.0-2 on Focal (e.g., download deb from Debian unstable or Ubuntu groovy-proposed). Observe that there is now no crash on Focal after launching "sup-mail".

[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://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Other_safe_cases>

- 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. Maintenance status upstream:

(1) Upstream project now has two new maintainers: see <https://github.com/sup-heliotrope/sup>. Two long-term users of Sup have now taken over the maintenance of the upstream project, after seeing the lack of Ruby 2.7 support previously. I am one of the new upstream co-maintainers <https://github.com/IPv2> and have been a long-term continuous Sup user (10+ years). The other new upstream co-maintainer is <https://github.com/danc86>, also a long-term user, and who for three years has separately been one of the downstream Fedora maintainers (<https://src.fedoraproject.org/user/dcallagh> for Fedora package "rpms/rubygem-sup"). We are actively maintaining upstream, and we released the new version 1.0 (with Ruby 2.7 support).

(2) Upstream Debian package maintained by the Debian Ruby Team now has two new named uploaders: see <https://packages.debian.org/sid/sup-mail>. I am one of the new named uploaders. Although I am new to Debian maintenance, the other maintainer is Utkarsh Gupta, who is an experienced Debian Developer.

- "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 7 April 2020 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 22 July 2020. sup-mail was therefore not in Debian unstable at the time of Focal's Debian Import Freeze.

- Upstream Debian bug 952089, now resolved (FTBFS due to lack of Ruby 2.7 support in sup-mail 0.22.1-3) - resolved as of sup-mail 1.0-2. https://bugs.debian.org/952089

- Raised as SRU, following IRC discussion today 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://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2020/07/23/%23ubuntu-devel.txt (A big thank you again, ~lucaskanashiro and ~racb!)