ubuntu-virt is not generated from seeds

[Robie Basak]

I would expect this source package to not exist, and use ubuntu-meta instead.

[Joshua Powers (powersj)]

@robie

This package has not been updated since trusty (v 1.4). Is there an action to remove this entirely? Moving to incomplete.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

I don't follow. This bug *is* the action to resolve this.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Hi Robie,
so as you know ubuntu-virt only generates virtual packages.
I never used is and only came by lately (to fix outdated dependencies), effectively all it "provides" is a one shot way to e.g. install all kvm virt related things e.g. via:

 $ apt install ubuntu-virt
And it has the option to split by -mgmnt or -server.

Anyway I think this is not important at all.
I usually rather recommend to use
 $ apt install uvtool-libvirt
Which pulls in all you usually need as well and the great uvtool :-)

I never touched ubuntu-meta, how would that look like - maybe like this?

But IIRC ubuntu-meta is generated by the update script from the seeds, not vice versa right?
So the change would be in the seeds instead of ubuntu-meta?

Also I think that is somewhat over-dose for something we don't expect being really used.
How would be the opinions around "just" dropping ubuntu-virt?

[Robie Basak (racb)]

> So the change would be in the seeds instead of ubuntu-meta?

This ubuntu-virt package is generated from its own source though. AFAICT, it has nothing to do with the seeds, nor with ubuntu-meta.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Yes, it is it's own source indeed.

But now we went full circle (ubuntu-virt -> ubuntu-meta -> seeds -> ubuntu-virt) and I'm more puzzled than before about the initial description now :-)

@racb - Lets talk later to untangle this please

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

After a discussion to untangle this confusion I feel better focused - we both had somewhat mis-understandable comments which didn't make it any better :-)
Thanks rbasak to help me clarifying this!

-- Details --

According to popcon [1] (to somewhat guess usage) we look at ~0.27% of the installations actually having the meta package "ubuntu-virt-server" installed.
ubuntu-virt-mgmt is about half of that and the over-arching ubuntu-virt is even fewer.

There is one seed (and an assocated tasksel) as one can see in reverse dependencies [2].
The "Virt-Host" seed [3] is inconsistent - it does not "just" depend on ubuntu-virt or any of its subsets. Instead if depends on ubuntu-virt-server, but then also explicitly libvirt-bin, openssh and various per arch qemu's.

Also these days there is no singular "Ubuntu virtualization stack" anymore. These days virt-stacks are mostly defined by their management interfaces.
If one wants containers he picks LXD. If he is going openstack he will go that route and so on.

Therfore I challenge if it is still important to have a "ubuntu-virt" meta package?
For the tasksel it might makes sense to exist, but even then it should be done via the seed directly.

---

Proposal:
A - drop ubuntu-virt* meta pkg in Artful:
 A1. change the virt-host seed to directly on correct binary packages
 A2. drop the source package ubuntu-virt in artful (and thereby the meta packages ubuntu-virt, ubuntu-virt-mgmt, ubuntu-virt-server)

Alternative:
B - keep ubuntu-virt* meta pkg, but restructure it's source in >=Artful:
 B1. Add seeds for ubuntu-virt-* as we decided we really need them
 B2. make the creation of the ubuntu-virt-* meta packages part of ubuntu-meta
 B3. drop the direct redundant dependencies from virt-host seed
 B4. drop the source package ubuntu-virt in artful

I outlined B right away in case A can't be accepted to quickly get to something actionable.

[1]: http://popcon.ubuntu.com/by_inst
[2]: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/germinate-output/ubuntu.artful/rdepends/ubuntu-virt/ubuntu-virt-server
[3]: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/seeds/ubuntu.artful/virt-host

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

I got the ok from Dustin who was the original creator and maintainer to go on with proposal A.

Preparing a branch for the ubuntu.artful seed.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Not sure how "valid" my local verification germinate runs against the changed content were.
I definitely see it:
a) still completing with good RC
b) the changes showing up in generated virt-host.seedtext
But at least with the current invocation my locally created rdepends dir is empty.

Furthermore I parsed through the whole of [1] to see if I might miss references we should change - but didn't find more that we would want to cover.

A review is highly welcome - not only because I can't upload on my own, but because it is the first time I mess with that (important) part of Ubuntu.

[1]: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/seeds/

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

@Robie Basak - since you are context switched into the topic already, could you take a look at the proposed branch and let me know if/what is missing.

Otherwise if it is ok as I read [1] there isn't much "sponsoring" or process around it "just" a core-dev to upload. I wonder about that being so "easy" for changing the seeds, but maybe I overlook a safety check behind that.

[1]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SeedManagement#Changing_the_Seeds

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

It came up in the discussion that the argument against the meta package applies just as much to the task. That is absolutely true, so I modified the MP to remove all of the task as well.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

As I read through tasksel updates we will need to regenerate tasks there once the seed change is done. That is regenerated via ubuntu-seeds.pl.

Adding a task for it to the bug.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

FYI - I pinged on the MP to be considered.

The other change (tasksel) is blocked on the seeds MP being merged to let the regen in tasksel pick up the changes correctly.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

MPs to seeds are merged - checking the real germinate process.

[1] files lost virt host - ok
[2] structure lost virt host - ok
[3]: supported replaced the dependencies in misc - ok
[4]: supported sources (comparing to zesty) did not loose (or add) and packages due to the change - ok

That said germinate seems to be fully processed looking into regenerating tasksel now for a proposal.

[1]: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/germinate-output/ubuntu.artful/
[2]: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/germinate-output/ubuntu.artful/structure
[3]: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/germinate-output/ubuntu.artful/supported-misc-servers.seedtext
[4]: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/germinate-output/ubuntu.artful/supported-misc-servers.sources

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Tasksel is another bzr branch at lp:~ubuntu-core-dev/tasksel/ubuntu but that is outdated.
The other VCS in d/control is Debians git and has no Ubuntu branch.
[1] has no other info either.
Reading through the most recent changes to tasksel I found similar issues on the branches like [2]
Long story short - I'll provide a debdiff to the package unless somebody can point me to a better way.

Praises to git to help me keep track what it actually changed this was regenerated via:
 $ ./ubuntu-seeds.pl ubuntu-tasks artful ubuntu xubuntu ubuntustudio ubuntu-mate ubuntu-gnome ubuntu-budgie lubuntu kubuntu platform

Note: There is another change on lubuntu-core-share picked up by the regenerate, which is due to [3]. I kept it in the Debdiff and adapted the changelog to mention it; if you prefer otherwise -
 please drop it or let me know if it should not be in the update.

Please review the debdiff and consider sponsoring it into Artful.

[1]: https://code.launchpad.net/tasksel
[2]: https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntubudgie-dev/tasksel/ubuntu-budgie-tasksel-proposal.zesty/+merge/313844
[3]: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~lubuntu-dev/ubuntu-seeds/lubuntu.artful/revision/374

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package tasksel - 3.34ubuntu7

---------------
tasksel (3.34ubuntu7) artful; urgency=medium

  * Update Ubuntu tasks from seeds
    - picks up the dropping of virt-host (LP: #1540323)
    - picks up renaming of lubuntu-core-share to core-share

 -- Christian Ehrhardt <email address hidden> Tue, 11 Jul 2017 09:17:17 +0200

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Now that also tasksel is fixed as well it is time to clean up in the archive:

Dependencies:
$ reverse-depends --with-suggests --release=artful src:ubuntu-virt
No reverse dependencies found

Making sure there is really no trace left, I check [1] and [2] with recursive wget+grep.
But there were no dependencies left either.

Therefore I ask an Archive Admin (now subscribed) to please remove src:ubuntu-virt and all binary packages it builds from Artful.

[1]: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/germinate-output/ubuntu.artful/
[2]: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/seeds/ubuntu.artful/

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

Confirmed this is no longer depended on, and indeed has already slipped into universe as a result.

Removing packages from artful:
        ubuntu-virt 1.5 in artful
                ubuntu-virt 1.5 in artful amd64
                ubuntu-virt 1.5 in artful arm64
                ubuntu-virt 1.5 in artful armhf
                ubuntu-virt 1.5 in artful i386
                ubuntu-virt 1.5 in artful ppc64el
                ubuntu-virt 1.5 in artful s390x
                ubuntu-virt-mgmt 1.5 in artful amd64
                ubuntu-virt-mgmt 1.5 in artful arm64
                ubuntu-virt-mgmt 1.5 in artful armhf
                ubuntu-virt-mgmt 1.5 in artful i386
                ubuntu-virt-mgmt 1.5 in artful ppc64el
                ubuntu-virt-mgmt 1.5 in artful s390x
                ubuntu-virt-server 1.5 in artful amd64
                ubuntu-virt-server 1.5 in artful arm64
                ubuntu-virt-server 1.5 in artful armhf
                ubuntu-virt-server 1.5 in artful i386
                ubuntu-virt-server 1.5 in artful ppc64el
                ubuntu-virt-server 1.5 in artful s390x
Comment: Redundant package metas now produced from the main seeds (LP: #1540323)
Remove [y|N]? y
1 package successfully removed.