Where to report a bug?

[Keith]

On 4/10/23 7:38 AM, Robert Heller wrote:
> At Mon, 10 Apr 2023 00:59:12 -0500 "Ubuntu user technical support,? not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
> 
>>
>> On 4/9/23 9:26 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
>>> At Sun, 9 Apr 2023 16:26:21 -0500 "Ubuntu user technical support,? not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 4/9/23 2:37 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
>>>>> I need to report a bug (which I thought I reported years ago).
>>>>>
>>>>> It is just a packaging error:
>>>>>
>>>>> For some reason, installing bison++ causes bison to be removed (and vice
>>>>> versa). This is not really necessary -- bison++ does not actually conflict
>>>>> eith bison. The two packages are completely independent. Yes, from some points
>>>>> of view they can be said to be replacements of each other, but they are
>>>>> different and it does make sense to have both installed at the same time.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Here's your bug report
>>>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bison++/+bug/1607408
>>>>
>>>> The reason there's a conflict is due to both bison and bison++ supplying
>>>> /usr/bin/bison, which is a filename collision. AIUI, bison++ is based on
>>>> a older version of bison so it makes sense that it has a /usr/bin/bison
>>>> that's different from the one supplied by the bison package.
>>>
>>> bison++ supplies /usr/bin/bison++, NOT /usr/bin/bison.  There aren't any
>>> actual file conflicts.
>>
>> Yes, there is. You can confirm this for yourself.
>> $ apt download bison
>> $ apt download bison++
>> These commands  will download the deb packages from the repos to the
>> current working directory.
>>
>> $ dpkg-deb -c bison__2%3a3.8.2+dfsg-1build1_amd64.deb |grep bin
>> drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2022-03-23 04:43 ./usr/bin/
>> -rwxr-xr-x root/root    504624 2022-03-23 04:43 ./usr/bin/bison
>> -rwxr-xr-x root/root      4214 2022-03-23 04:43 ./usr/bin/bison.yacc
>>
>> $ dpkg-deb -c bison++_1.21.11-5_amd64.deb |grep bin
>> drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2021-10-24 01:32 ./usr/bin/
>> -rwxr-xr-x root/root     89176 2021-10-24 01:32 ./usr/bin/bison
>> -rwxr-xr-x root/root     89176 2021-10-24 01:32 ./usr/bin/bison++
>> -rwxr-xr-x root/root        30 2021-10-24 01:32 ./usr/bin/bison++.yacc
>>
>> The bison executable in the bison package is 504624 bytes while the one
>> in the bison++ package is 89176 bytes. They're different executables
>> with the same name, which is a filename collision and which is why the
>> bison++ package conflicts with the bison one.
>>
>> Now the bison executable in the bison++ package is byte-for-byte
>> identical with the bison++ executable. I don't know why it's provided as
>> an executable and not as a symbolic link, but it isn't and that's the
>> reason why the packages conflict.
> 
> It is a mistake.  The Makefile for the bison++ package does not create the
> bison executable.  The packacging creates the extra executable (and man page).
> *That* is the bug.  It is unnecessary and unneeded.
> 
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Unlikely to get traction with Ubuntu bug tracker since the package lives
>>>> upstream in Debian and also conflicts with the bison package there too.
>>>> Looking at its changelog it seems to be in maintenance mode and its
>>>> development appears to have halted in the mid-90's.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I guess I will need to download the sources for both packages and fix them
>>> myself.  (Unless there is a "trick" to tell apt to ignore the conflict.)
>>>
>> There's the "--force-conflicts" option for dpkg that will install a
>> package despite its conflicting with another and overwriting the other's
>> files. However, apt will complain about broken packages installed and
>> likely won't allow any changes to the package database until the
>> situation is fixed.
>>
>> You wouldn't need to build both packages from source, just one. You
>> could install the regular bison package from the main repo and then
>> install bison++ to /usr/local. The bison executable from bison++ would
>> be installed to /usr/local/bin and wouldn't conflict with the one from
>> the bison package which would be in /usr/bin, You'd still want to rename
>> or remove /usr/local/bin/bison because it would be found first in $PATH,
>> but it wouldn't conflict upon installation.
>>
> 
> I actually don't even need to do that. All I need to do is fix the file(s) in
> the debian directory in the bison++ package to correct its error. Then I can
> install the resulting bison++ deb file normally, putting bison++ in /usr/bin
> and bison++.1 in /usr/share/man/man1/.
> 

Well good it sounds like you got it sorted.

-- 
Keith