awk inconsistency

[Steve Langasek]

Hi Robie,

In terms of gawk being included by default on certain Ubuntu installs, this
is a bug to be aware of that can impact upgrades:

  https://bugs.debian.org/932752

I think I've looked at the byobu gawk dependency at least once before and
unfortunately the awk usage in /usr/bin/byobu-select-profile is not
compatible with mawk per
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/byobu/+bug/1166416>.

On Wed, Mar 03, 2021 at 03:06:17PM +0000, Robie Basak wrote:
> [also CCing ubuntu-server@ as server people might also want this as a
> PSA]
> 
> I just noticed something. mawk is Required, so provides the usual
> implementation of awk on Ubuntu. However, byobu depends on gawk, and
> byobu is seeded on server (and cloud images). gawk also provides the awk
> update-alternative at a higher priority than mawk. So gawk is
> effectively the default awk implementation on Ubuntu Server.
> 
> I suspect that this happened a long time ago, and is an accident. I
> don't like the inconsistency as it could lead to surprising behaviour.
> 
> However I'm not sure if it's worth making consistent, as this might
> break people who depend on some specific behaviour on release upgrade.
> 
> So I'm not suggesting we do anything about it now, but I thought I'd
> leave this note in case anyone finds themselves puzzled by this in the
> future.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                   https://www.debian.org/
slangasek at ubuntu.com                                     vorlon at debian.org
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 833 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-server/attachments/20210303/e40f1368/attachment.sig>