[Reportbug-maint] Bug#690537: Bug#690537: reportbug: Package list does not specify arch

[Sandro Tosi]

control: clone -1 -2
control: reassign -2 dpkg
control: retitle -2 [reportbug] how to know if a package needs arch-qualif
control: severity -2 wishlist
control: block -1 by -2
control: block 767182 by -1

On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 11:52 AM, Adrian Lang <debian at adrianlang.de> wrote:
> Package: reportbug
> Version: 6.4.3
> Severity: normal
>
> _Steps to reproduce_
>
> Invoke reportbug with a binary package name which fulfills the following
> conditions:
>
>  - it is not a source package name at the same time
>  - you have this package installed for multiple architectures
>
> Two packages which match these criteria on my system are libgl1-mesa-dri and
> gcc-4.7-base.
>
> _Expected behaviour_
>
> Reportbug detects that all different architectures of this package actually
> are the same bug reporting target and the user does not have to select one of
> these packages.
>
> _Actual behaviour_
>
> Reportbug gives the following question:
>
> ----
> Which of the following installed packages is the bug in?
>
> 1 gcc-4.7-base  GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection (base package)
>
> 2 gcc-4.7-base  GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection (base package)
>
> 3 gcc-4.7-base  Uninstalled/non-existent package
>
> Select one of these packages:

(this can be replicated also with a more recent package like gcc-5-base)

Dear dpkg maintainer, how can reportbug understand if a package needs
arch-qualification or not? for example

$ dpkg-query -W gcc-5-base
gcc-5-base:amd64        5.2.1-24
gcc-5-base:i386 5.2.1-24

but

$ dpkg-query -W dpkg
dpkg    1.18.3

we are currently using the 'status' file (we are parsing it matching
on '^Package:'), where:

$ dpkg --status gcc-5-base:amd64
Package: gcc-5-base
Status: install ok installed
Priority: required
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 197
Maintainer: Debian GCC Maintainers <debian-gcc at lists.debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
[8<]

so the Package line doesnt have the arch qualification so our
file-parsing doesnt return it, but from the command line we need to
specify it else:

$ dpkg --status gcc-5-base
dpkg-query: error: --status needs a valid package name but
'gcc-5-base' is not: ambiguous package name 'gcc-5-base' with more
than one installed instance

how can we improve that in reportbug? is there a better way to
retrieve such information? ideally if someone wants to report a bug
against 'gcc-5-base' we should be able to return the 2 entries as of:

$ dpkg-query -W gcc-5-base
gcc-5-base:amd64        5.2.1-24
gcc-5-base:i386 5.2.1-24

(we also provide the description, that's why we use the status db).

Thanks for your help,
-- 
Sandro "morph" Tosi
My website: http://matrixhasu.altervista.org/
Me at Debian: http://wiki.debian.org/SandroTosi
G+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+SandroTosi