mdw@git.distorted.org.uk Git - dpkg/blob - doc/README.feature-removal-schedule

   1 This is a list of features that are scheduled to be removed from dpkg.
   2
   3 What: fallback of dpkg-source to source format "1.0" without explicit debian/source/format
   4 Status: deprecated
   5 When: 1.17.x
   6 Warning: program and lintian (missing-debian-source-format)
   7 Why:
   8  With the support of multiple source formats, the user should be explicit
   9  about the desired source format. The fallback to "1.0" is there only for
  10  backwards compatibility but will be removed once all packages have the
  11  debian/source/format file. This is unlikely to happen before 1.17.x.
  12
  13 What --forget-old-unavail (dpkg option)
  14 Status: obsolete
  15 When: 1.16.x
  16 Warning: program
  17 Why:
  18  Purged packages are properly cleaned up now by dpkg, and old unavailable
  19  leftovers are automatically cleaned up on database parsing. So there's no
  20  need anymore for this manual action.
  21
  22 What: --control-path (dpkg-query option)
  23 Status: deprecated
  24 When: 1.18.x
  25 Warning: man page
  26  This was a semi-public interface now superseded by --control-list and
  27  --control-show, which are a better interface as they do not rely on any
  28  specific database layout. Although there might still be cases where it's
  29  required to avoid hardcoding the database layout, and it will be kept as
  30  long as there's legitimate uses for it and no viable replacements.
  31
  32 What: -L (dpkg-parsechangelog option)
  33 Status: obsolete
  34 Since: 1.18.8
  35 When: 1.19.x
  36 Warning: program
  37 Why:
  38  The custom parsers have been switched from programs to perl modules,
  39  and this option has no use any longer. The caller can set PERL5LIB or
  40  PERLLIB to specify the perl module search path now.
  41
  42 History of feature removals
  43 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  44
  45 What: cleanup-info (program)
  46 Status: removed
  47 Since: 1.15.0
  48 Why:
  49  This program was needed long time ago to fixup broken info dir files
  50  generated by buggy install-info programs. Should not be needed anymore.
  51
  52 What: --largemem, --smallmem (dpkg option)
  53 Status: removed
  54 When: 1.15.1
  55 Why:
  56  These options have been no-ops for a long time.
  57
  58 What: --force-auto-select (dpkg option)
  59 Status: removed
  60 When: 1.15.1
  61 Why:
  62  This option has been a no-op for so long, that there's no traces on git
  63  history of its usage.
  64
  65 What: recommended, contrib, base (priority)
  66 Status: removed
  67 When: 1.15.1
  68 Why:
  69  These priorities have been superseded by either other fields or values in
  70  other fields.
  71
  72 What: 822-date (program)
  73 Status: removed
  74 When: 1.15.1
  75 Why:
  76  Should switch to use 'date -R'.
  77
  78 What: support of custom changelog parsers understanding only -v
  79 Status: removed
  80 Since: 1.15.5
  81 Why:
  82  The debian changelog parser has been enhanced. It supports new options
  83  that enable more fine-grained retrieval of information. Those new options
  84  will be used by scripts (like dpkg-genchanges).
  85  .
  86  Custom changelog parsers must be updated to support the new API (see
  87  dpkg-parsechangelog(1) and README.api).
  88
  89 What: support for environment variable DPKG_NO_TSTP
  90 Status: removed
  91 Since: 1.15.6
  92 Why:
  93  Having two ways to let the administrator get to a shell on conffile prompt
  94  is confusing, it also impedes setting up a consistent environment to be
  95  used by external programs.
  96
  97 What: support for PGP
  98 Status: removed
  99 When: 1.16.4
 100 Warning: program
 101 Why:
 102  PGP is not part of Debian and GnuPG has been the standard tool for digital
 103  signatures for several years already. Supporting only GnuPG enables us to
 104  rely on some of its features.
 105
 106 What: -u, --udeb (dpkg-scanpackages option)
 107 Status: removed
 108 When: 1.16.4
 109 Warning: program
 110 Why:
 111  This option has been superseded by -tudeb.
 112
 113 What: support for custom changelog parsers as programs
 114 Status: removed
 115 Since: 1.18.8
 116 Why:
 117  Using programs to implement the custom changelog parsers was very inefficient
 118  as it required to parse the custom changelog, output deb822 formatted entries
 119  to then parse that and output again with the desired format.
 120  .
 121  These were implemented as programs because at the time the perl code in dpkg
 122  was not using perl modules, so it was not easy to extend. Using perl modules
 123  now is cleaner and allows for a faster implementation.
 124  .
 125  In addition there's no known users in Debian, so it was deemed safe to remove
 126  the support without a transition.
 127
 128 What: Source-Version (substvar)
 129 Status: removed
 130 When: 1.18.11
 131 Warning: program, lintian (substvar-source-version-is-deprecated)
 132 Why:
 133  The semantics of Source-Version were misleading when applied to binNMUs.
 134  Should switch to use binary:Version or source:Version substvars.
 135  .
 136  The code got changed to emit errors.
 137
 138 What: -Zlzma (dpkg-deb option value)
 139 Status: removed
 140 When: 1.18.11
 141 Warning: program
 142 Why:
 143  LZMA compression has some format deficiencies fixed by XZ, which is what
 144  upstream has replaced it with, as such there's no point in continuing to
 145  support compressing new .deb files with that format, although unpacking
 146  will be kept being supported to handle existing compressed files.
 147
 148 What: -Zbzip2 (dpkg-deb option value)
 149 Status: removed
 150 When: 1.18.11
 151 Warning: program
 152 Why:
 153  bzip2 compression has been superseded by xz when it comes to size, and
 154  gzip is still faster, in Debian there's really not many packages using
 155  that compression, as such there's no point in continuing to support
 156  compressing new .deb files with that format, although unpacking
 157  will be kept being supported to handle existing compressed files.
 158
 159 What: --new, --old (dpkg-deb options)
 160 Status: removed
 161 When: 1.18.11
 162 Warning: program
 163 Why:
 164  These options are not future-proof, and do not give the caller any
 165  guarantee of what exact format version will be used to produce the
 166  output file. They were replaced with a new --deb-format option.
 167
 168 What: --print-installation-architecture (dpkg option)
 169 Status: removed
 170 When: 1.18.11
 171 Warning: program
 172 Why:
 173  Obsoleted long time ago (2005-01-22). Remaining packages should switch to
 174  use 'dpkg --print-architecture'.