Bug#808239: perl: Perl, Perl-Base Upgrade Uninstalls 144 Unrelated Packages e.g. Xorg (Sid Unstable)

[Cindy Sue Causey]

Package: perl
Version: 5.20.2-6
Severity: critical
Justification: breaks the whole system

Dear Maintainer,

Hi.. First, thank you all for the work you do!

Next.. I ran my usual "apt-get update" today. Found perl and perl-base needing upgraded in Sid Unstable along with ~20+ other packages. When I began the process to upgrade all those packages together, I received an apt-get advisement that 144 packages were going to be removed. Xorg was just the most important that stuck out, hence this bug's subject line. There are numerous other programs/packages being touched on here in addition to Xorg.

A quick manual run down the list of packages needing upgraded showed both perl and perl-base to be the packages attempting the uninstalls. For simplicity's sake, the following (extensive) output is what I receive when attempting to install perl by itself:

+++
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libperl5.22 perl-base perl-modules-5.22
Suggested packages:
  perl-doc libterm-readline-gnu-perl | libterm-readline-perl-perl
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  apt-file apt-show-versions aspell aspell-en claws-mail claws-mail-i18n
  console-setup console-setup-linux debconf-i18n dictionaries-common enchant
  gnome-user-guide hunspell-en-us inkscape keyboard-configuration
  libalgorithm-diff-xs-perl libapt-pkg-perl libb-hooks-endofscope-perl
  libb-hooks-op-check-perl libbareword-filehandles-perl libcairo-perl
  libcgi-fast-perl libcgi-pm-perl libclass-accessor-perl libclass-c3-xs-perl
  libclass-xsaccessor-perl libclone-perl libcommon-sense-perl
  libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdata-optlist-perl libdata-perl-perl
  libdata-section-perl libdevel-caller-perl libdevel-lexalias-perl
  libemail-valid-perl libenchant1c2a libfcgi-perl libfile-fcntllock-perl
  libgetopt-long-descriptive-perl libglib-perl libgtk2-gladexml-perl
  libgtk2-perl libgtkspell0 libhtml-form-perl libhtml-format-perl
  libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tree-perl libimage-magick-perl
  libimage-magick-q16-perl libimport-into-perl libindirect-perl libio-pty-perl
  libio-socket-inet6-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libipc-run-perl
  libjson-xs-perl liblexical-sealrequirehints-perl liblist-moreutils-perl
  liblocale-gettext-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl libmailtools-perl
  libmath-random-isaac-xs-perl libmime-tools-perl
  libmodule-implementation-perl libmodule-runtime-perl libmoo-perl
  libmoox-handlesvia-perl libmultidimensional-perl libnamespace-autoclean-perl
  libnamespace-clean-perl libnet-dbus-perl libnet-dns-perl
  libnet-smtp-ssl-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libossp-uuid-perl
  libpackage-stash-perl libpackage-stash-xs-perl libpadwalker-perl
  libpango-perl libparams-classify-perl libparams-util-perl
  libparams-validate-perl libparse-debianchangelog-perl libperl5.20
  libperlio-gzip-perl libpod-readme-perl libsoap-lite-perl libsocket6-perl
  libsoftware-license-perl libsub-exporter-perl libsub-identify-perl
  libsub-name-perl libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl
  libtext-soundex-perl libtext-wrapi18n-perl libtype-tiny-xs-perl
  libtypes-serialiser-perl libunicode-utf8-perl libvariable-magic-perl
  libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 libwww-perl libxml-parser-perl libxml-twig-perl
  libxmlrpc-lite-perl libyelp0 lintian miscfiles moreutils perl-modules
  qemu-launcher tasksel tasksel-data xorg xscreensaver xscreensaver-data
  xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all
  xserver-xorg-input-evdev xserver-xorg-input-mouse
  xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse
  xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-ati
  xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-fbdev xserver-xorg-video-intel
  xserver-xorg-video-mach64 xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
  xserver-xorg-video-qxl xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
  xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
  xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
  yelp
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libperl5.22 perl-modules-5.22
The following packages will be upgraded:
  perl perl-base
2 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 144 to remove and 24 not upgraded.
Need to get 7583 kB of archives.
After this operation, 250 MB disk space will be freed.
+++

It sometimes works to install/upgrade other packages first then re-attempt upgrading the problem package. So I tried perl-base alone but received similar results to perl. Am taking an uninformed but experience based guess that the other unrelated packages slated to be installed/upgraded today will most likely not change perl's attempt to uninstall things. Since I'm on dialup and it would take a couple hours to test the unrelated packages, it seemed more important to go ahead and bring this to Developers' attention first and as immediately as possible.

In conclusion, simply setting the perl and perl-base upgrades to the side is the course of action I intend to follow at this time.

Thank you again for all your work!

Cindy Sue :)


-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.1.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=, LC_CTYPE= (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages perl depends on:
ii  dpkg          1.18.3
ii  libbz2-1.0    1.0.6-8
ii  libc6         2.21-4
ii  libdb5.3      5.3.28-11
ii  libgdbm3      1.8.3-13.1
ii  perl-base     5.20.2-6
ii  perl-modules  5.20.2-6
ii  zlib1g        1:1.2.8.dfsg-2+b1

Versions of packages perl recommends:
ii  netbase  5.3
ii  rename   0.20-4

Versions of packages perl suggests:
pn  libterm-readline-gnu-perl | libterm-readline-perl-perl  <none>
ii  make                                                    4.0-8.2
pn  perl-doc                                                <none>

-- no debconf information