Package: wnpp Severity: normal X-Debbugs-Cc: bear@packages.debian.org, sramacher@debian.org Control: affects -1 + src:bear I intend to orphan the bear package. The package description is: Bear records the flags passed to the compiler for each translation unit and stores them in a JSON file. This file can be used by Clang's tooling interface and programs like clang-check to process a translation unit. . cmake supports the generation of JSON compilation databases out of the box. For any other build system that does not support this, Bear can be used instead to intercept the invocation of the compiler. Cheers
Hi, I am interested in adopting the bear package and maintain it. I am new to debian packaging, so I would appreciate guidance if any issues arise. and I have plan to upload new upstream, fix lintian warning and then push changes to bear salsa-repository. It's so much pleasure for me to get me access for salsa repository. thanks a lot Sebastian for maintaining bear debian package until now, bear is very helpful tool for me. best regards, Iliya Abolghasemi (gfaerny)
Hi Iliya, I'm Bear's upstream maintainer. Thank you for stepping up to adopt the package - and thank you Sebastian for maintaining it all these years. One heads-up for planning: the current upstream line (4.x) is a ground-up rewrite in Rust, so bringing the package up to the latest version is more than a routine bump - the build system, dependencies, and install layout all changed since 3.x. How would you like to approach it? I'm happy to support the packaging work from the upstream side; tell me what would help. And if anything in upstream's build or release process creates friction for Debian, I'd like to hear about it - that feedback is valuable to me. I'm easy to reach on the GitHub tracker, or by mail. Cheers, Laszlo Nagy
I have decided to step down from adopting the bear package due to the
endless internet connectivity issues in my area.
bear requires an active maintainer, especially given the frequent
upstream changes and versioning updates:
Notes for the new maintainer:
bear has migrated to Rust Cargo. All required build dependencies are
already available in Debian Unstable, except for the serde-saphyr
crate, which in turn depends on the granit-parser crate.
bear
└─ serde-saphyr
└─ granit-parser
It also requires relaxing the Cargo.toml dependency constraints.
Regards
Hi Syed, You took the ITA for bear in September. Are you working on the 4.x (Rust) transition? I started this and have a first version ready to go. Happy to adopt this instead if you are short on time. Cheers, Charles
Hi Charles, Thank you for reaching out, yes i am working on this package rust conversion. I do have an update ready which is in pipeline due to dependency failure on testing. So pushing it to unstable won't be fruitful. https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/rust-serde-saphyr I didn't have the bandwidth to look into problem with debcargo-conf rust-serde-saphyr package. Do you wish to co-maintain bear package? Best regards, Syed Shahrukh Hussain.
Hi Syed, That shouldn't block bear though. 4.x can go to unstable now and simply won't migrate until serde-saphyr does? It gets exposure in the meantime. The migration block is resource exhaustion on the 32-bit CI runners, not a bug in serde-saphyr AFAICT. i386 fails with "No space left on device" while linking the test binaries. armhf fails on the all-features test. Everything else passes. I'll take it to the Rust team in debcargo-conf. Yes, happy to co-maintain. Some Q's * Move the repo from sramacher/bear to debian/bear on salsa? * Can you push your branch? I'll compare with mine and we merge the best of both. * Who sponsors the first upload? As far as I know neither of us has DM rights on bear yet. Cheers, Charles
On Wed, 21 Oct 2026 10:10:14 +0000 Charles <boxabc1@proton.me> wrote: Thank you for looking into it. Yes sound good :-) not sure if ignoring the arch or skip-not-installable maybe an option for autopkgtests. I will request for migration to salsa/debian. sure.. a temporary fork for review: https://salsa.debian.org/syed/bear I will request DM rights, maybe get before or after uploaded. Regards, Syed Shahrukh Hussain.
Hi Syed, https://salsa.debian.org/rust-team/debcargo-conf/-/merge_requests/1494 https://salsa.debian.org/charles05/bear/-/tree/wip/4.x Main difference: it keeps the exit_codes tests (run serially) instead of disabling them. Also, does yours build on amd64? bear.install only lists lib64 AFAICT. Can send these as MRs to your base once it is on debian/bear if you like? AFAIU DM rights need a DD grant after an upload lists you, so the first upload needs a sponsor either way. Cheers, Charles
Thank you! It is work in progress, you asked for something for comparison.. so i provided something immediately.. Cool! didn't tried. there is difference in directory for lib 32 bit and 64 bit and its is controlled by INTERCEPT_LIBDIR so it creates appropriate target specific directory lib/lib64 look further for bear readme for details. It is moved to https://salsa.debian.org/debian/bear. Thank you for the packaging push, your work looks complete. Few quick finding: 1. Please check INTERCEPT_LIBDIR to ensure packaging respect lib/lib64 target specific. 2. Also i had problem with |rm -f Cargo.lock under ||override_dh_auto_build, it failed sometimes using gdb.| |3. override_dh_auto_build does not respect hardening if enabled. | |4. not sure if shell completion are enabled on not.| I do a push so the upstream is update to latest so you can add MR of your work and we can work on ward ? Best, Syed Shahrukh Hussain.
Hi Syed, Understood, and thanks for sharing it that quickly. Thanks! Yes please. I'll rebase on top of yours and open an MR once it's there. Mine uses the default (lib) at both build and install time, as INSTALL.md asks. It's a private dir under /usr/libexec/bear, so AFAICT Debian doesn't need lib64 there. The smoke test passes. Happy to change it if you see a case I'm missing. Mine removes it in override_dh_auto_configure, not build. Do you still have the failure log? Ah, thanks. The cc crate ignores CPPFLAGS, so the C shim was built without _FORTIFY_SOURCE. Fixed in the branch. Cheers, Charles
I have pushed changes mainly packaging related, a patch and d/rules for reference and they are not tested at all.. https://salsa.debian.org/debian/bear Updates branches: upstream, pristine-tar and master. This is the baseline you can use for all the real package building stuff. Upstream suggestion for packaging to use the INTERCEPT_LIBDIR https://github.com/rizsotto/Bear/blob/master/INSTALL.md So ideally it should be like that... these minor things can be fixed in some later releases but a good start here will go a long run. I had problem with gbp while triage build issue.. normally all builds on Debian are sbuild so it won't be an issue CI wise. Thank you again for fixing the tests, Rust is not my forte yet :-) Best, Syed Shahrukh Hussain.