Bug#874773: forensics-all: Use of /var/lib/apt/lists internals

[Julian Andres Klode]

On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 09:17:26PM -0300, Eriberto Mota wrote:
> Hi Julian,
> 
> Thanks for your message. I have some considerations.
> 
> 
> 2017-09-09 11:11 GMT-03:00 Julian Andres Klode <jak at debian.org>:
> >
> > your package appears to be relying on the internal layout of /var/lib/apt/lists
> > and the location of that directory (which is configurable), as it matches the
> > following regular expression (and a quick check did not rule out a false positive):
> >
> >     /var/lib/apt/lists/.*(Packages|Sources)
> >
> > For the matches found, you can have a quick look at:
> >
> >     https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=%2Fvar%2Flib%2Fapt%2Flists%2F.*%28Packages%7CSources%29+package%3Aforensics-all
> >
> > APT since some time supports compressed indices using the option
> > `Acquire::gzipIndexes`. Starting with 1.2, index files are stored
> > with lz4 compression if that option is enabled, providing significant
> > space savings at low overhead.
> >
> > Some platforms and users might already have these indexes compressed by default
> > in order to save space, and your package might not be working for them.
> 
> 
> This is a native source that provides a metapackage. The content of
> the script isn't for use by final users and this script isn't
> installed by the package. The script is used by maintainers only to
> aid to create a control file. After this, the new control file must be
> double checked to avoid mistakes. Our machines (my machine and
> Giovani's machine) and ours Debians are compliant with the script.

[...]
 
> It is interesting but I think that not applicable. As I said, the
> script has a special goal and is not destinated to final users. We
> have a strict control over the packages list, independently of
> compression or other issues.

It will break next month when compressed index files become
the default, unless you change the default back. And the default
compressor might change in the future, too.

-- 
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