Debian Bug report logs - #9353
822-date is obsolete

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Package: dpkg; Maintainer for dpkg is Dpkg Developers <debian-dpkg@lists.debian.org>; Source for dpkg is src:dpkg (PTS, buildd, popcon).

Reported by: Galen Hazelwood <galenh@micron.net>

Date: Sun, 4 May 1997 18:33:03 UTC

Severity: normal

Found in version 1.4.0.12

Done: Wichert Akkerman <wichert@wiggy.net>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Report forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>:
Bug#9353; Package dpkg. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Galen Hazelwood <galenh@micron.net>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Galen Hazelwood <galenh@micron.net>
To: submit@bugs.debian.org
Subject: 822-date is obsolete
Date: Sun, 04 May 1997 12:28:06 -0600
Package: dpkg
Version: 1.4.0.12

822-date was originally written as a hack due to the fact that the GNU
date command didn't support RFC-822 dates.  This support was added later
(date -R), and this should probably be used instead.


Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>:
Bug#9353; Package dpkg. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Klee Dienes <klee@sauron.fashion-technology.com>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #10 received at 9353@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Klee Dienes <klee@sauron.fashion-technology.com>
To: Galen Hazelwood <galenh@micron.net>
Cc: 9353@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#9353: 822-date is obsolete
Date: 05 May 1997 22:02:18 -0400
> 822-date was originally written as a hack due to the fact that the GNU
> date command didn't support RFC-822 dates.  This support was added later
> (date -R), and this should probably be used instead.

I believe that it is important to make dpkg work well outside of the
context of a complete Debian system, so that we can promote it as a
distribution-independent format for a number of unix and linux
distributions besides the various flavors of Debian.

We don't currently do a very good job of this; I'm working on making
it better.  Given this outlook, though, I'm reluctant to make any
change that reduces the portability of the dpkg tools (in this case,
by requiring a newer version of GNU date).  822-date is already
written, depends only on Perl, and is inexpensive to distribute.

I do agree, though, that it might be a good idea to move 822-date to
$libexecdir (/usr/lib/dpkg/822-date in Debian).



Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>:
Bug#9353; Package dpkg. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Michael Alan Dorman <mdorman@calder.med.miami.edu>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #15 received at 9353@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Michael Alan Dorman <mdorman@calder.med.miami.edu>
To: Klee Dienes <klee@sauron.fashion-technology.com>, 9353@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#9353: 822-date is obsolete
Date: 06 May 1997 08:42:56 -0400
Klee Dienes <klee@sauron.fashion-technology.com> writes:
> 822-date is already written, depends only on Perl, and is
> inexpensive to distribute.

As part of my rewrite-in-anger of the dpkg-* perl scripts, I've moved
822-date out into a perl module.  Since at this point it seems that
all the programs that are using are, in fact, perl scripts themselves,
this should be a win in that we will no longer be spawning unnecessary
additional processes.

If necessary, I can also set the package up so that if it's called as
a program, it will perform as the old one did, and then it can just be
linked to the old name.  Would this seem sensible?

Mike.
-- 
Michael Alan Dorman                                   Head of Systems
mdorman@calder.med.miami.edu            Louis Calder Memorial Library
(305) 243-5530                 University of Miami School of Medicine 


Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>:
Bug#9353; Package dpkg. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Klee Dienes <klee@mit.edu>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #20 received at 9353@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Klee Dienes <klee@mit.edu>
To: Michael Alan Dorman <mdorman@calder.med.miami.edu>
Cc: 9353@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#9353: 822-date is obsolete
Date: 06 May 1997 12:08:18 -0400
Michael Alan Dorman <mdorman@calder.med.miami.edu>:
> If necessary, I can also set the package up so that if it's called as
> a program, it will perform as the old one did, and then it can just be
> linked to the old name.  Would this seem sensible?

Sounds ideal.  We'll need to have 822-date available as a separate
binary, as it's used by debian-changelog-mode as well as by the
various perl scripts.


Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Klee Dienes and Ian Jackson <dpkg-maint@chiark.greenend.org.uk>:
Bug#9353; Package dpkg. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Klee Dienes and Ian Jackson <dpkg-maint@chiark.greenend.org.uk>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #25 received at 9353@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
To: Galen Hazelwood <galenh@micron.net>
Cc: 9353@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#9357: `date -R' not documented (and no corresponding % ?)
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 97 18:46 BST
Galen Hazelwood writes ("Re: Bug#9357: `date -R' not documented (and no corresponding % ?)"):
> Looks like I spoke too soon about adding a %R escape to date.  Date uses
> strftime(3) to convert the string.  Adding %R means hacking strftime. 
> Hacking strftime means hacking glibc.  This is something I'm not going
> to do lightly.
> 
> Ian, is there any overriding reason why there has to be a specific
> escape for the rfc-822 syntax?  Can you imagine a scenario in which the
> -R flag or the explicitly specified version "%a, %_d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z"
> would be inadequate?  This is an honest question--I don't want to go
> patching the library without a pretty good reason.

I see you've closed the bug, which is fine by me.  Would it be
possible, though, to have the -R option produce the format with the
timezone in parentheses ?  This ought to be encouraged :-).

In the meantime dpkg should be changed to have an 822-date which is
just a wrapper for the `date' command with an appropriate string, and
a dependency on the appropriate version of <foo>utils.

Thanks,
Ian.

-chiark:~> date +"%a, %e %b %Y %T %z (%Z)"
Wed, 20 Aug 1997 18:41:21 +0100 (BST)
-chiark:~> date -R
Wed, 20 Aug 1997 18:41:36 +0100
-chiark:~>


Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Dpkg Development <debian-dpkg@lists.debian.org>, dpkg@packages.qa.debian.org:
Bug#9353; Package dpkg. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Thomas Hood <jdthood@yahoo.co.uk>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Dpkg Development <debian-dpkg@lists.debian.org>, dpkg@packages.qa.debian.org. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #30 received at 9353@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Thomas Hood <jdthood@yahoo.co.uk>
To: 9353@bugs.debian.org
Cc: Galen Hazelwood <galenh@micron.net>, Klee Dienes <klee@sauron.fashion-technology.com>, Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Subject: 9353 -- wishlist or close?
Date: 06 Oct 2002 10:17:22 +0200
Report 9353, dating from 1997, concerns /usr/bin/822-date.
(It is no longer part of dpkg.  It is now part of dpkg-dev.)
The original request was to eliminate it and use
date -R instead.  The two do seem to produce similar results:

jdthood@thanatos:~$ 822-date
Sun,  6 Oct 2002 10:09:51 +0200
jdthood@thanatos:~$ date -R
Sun, 06 Oct 2002 10:09:53 +0200

However, Klee Dienes wrote that he did not wish to make dpkg
depend on the date command.  In Debian it is part of shellutils,
which is Essential: yes.  However, he was concerned about
portability of dpkg to other distros.

What is the current view?  If porting to date -R is planned,
this report can be set to severity wishlist.  Otherwise this
report can be closed.

--
Thomas Hood




Reply sent to Wichert Akkerman <wichert@wiggy.net>:
You have taken responsibility. (full text, mbox, link).


Notification sent to Galen Hazelwood <galenh@micron.net>:
Bug acknowledged by developer. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #35 received at 9353-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Wichert Akkerman <wichert@wiggy.net>
To: Thomas Hood <jdthood@yahoo.co.uk>, 9353-done@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#9353: 9353 -- wishlist or close?
Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 10:41:24 +0200
Previously Thomas Hood wrote:
> What is the current view?  If porting to date -R is planned,
> this report can be set to severity wishlist.  Otherwise this
> report can be closed.

Lets close it. It is more important to have dpkg be portable.

Wichert.

-- 
  _________________________________________________________________
 /wichert@wiggy.net         This space intentionally left occupied \
| wichert@deephackmode.org                    http://www.wiggy.net/ |
| 1024D/2FA3BC2D 576E 100B 518D 2F16 36B0  2805 3CB8 9250 2FA3 BC2D |



Message #36 received at 9353-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Thomas Hood <jdthood@yahoo.co.uk>
To: 9353-done@bugs.debian.org
Subject: 9353 won't be done
Date: 06 Oct 2002 19:05:17 +0200
In order to maintain portability, dpkg will not be changed
to depend on the date command.

--
Thomas




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