Dear maintainer(s),
The Release Team considers packages that are out-of-sync between testing
and unstable for more than 30 days as having a Release Critical bug in
testing [1]. Your package src:expeyes has been trying to migrate for 31
days [2]. Hence, I am filing this bug. The version in unstable failed to
build on arch:all because:
"""
dpkg-gencontrol: error: the Depends field contains an arch-specific
dependency but the package 'eyes17' is architecture all
dh_gencontrol: error: dpkg-gencontrol -peyes17 -ldebian/changelog
-Tdebian/eyes17.substvars -Pdebian/eyes17 returned exit code 25
"""
I recognize the solution from our discussion on mediawiki2latex, but it
only works for arch:${not-all} binaries, as the architecture qualifiers
are resolved at build time, not at install time. If these dependencies
aren't absolutely needed, I suggest to add them to Recommends (as those
are installed by default, while still supporting armel, ppc64el and
s390x). If they are near "absolutely needed", then just have eyes17
not-installable on these architectures (which needs a hint from the
Release Team to migrate to testing).
If a package is out of sync between unstable and testing for a longer
period, this usually means that bugs in the package in testing cannot be
fixed via unstable. Additionally, blocked packages can have impact on
other packages, which makes preparing for the release more difficult.
Finally, it often exposes issues with the package and/or
its (reverse-)dependencies. We expect maintainers to fix issues that
hamper the migration of their package in a timely manner.
This bug will trigger auto-removal when appropriate. As with all new
bugs, there will be at least 30 days before the package is auto-removed.
I have immediately closed this bug with the version in unstable, so if
that version or a later version migrates, this bug will no longer affect
testing. I have also tagged this bug to only affect sid and trixie, so
it doesn't affect (old-)stable.
If you believe your package is unable to migrate to testing due to
issues beyond your control, don't hesitate to contact the Release Team.
Paul
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2023/06/msg00001.html
[2] https://qa.debian.org/excuses.php?package=expeyes