Bug#808430: perl-modules-5.22: after the upgrade to perl 5.22, the Module::Build module is no longer present

[Dominic Hargreaves]

Control: severity -1 normal

On Sun, Dec 20, 2015 at 02:28:16AM +0100, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> Package: perl-modules-5.22
> Version: 5.22.1-2
> Severity: serious
> 
> After the upgrade to perl 5.22, the Module::Build module is no longer
> present. With perl 5.20, it was present in both perl-modules and
> libmodule-build-perl. After the upgrade, it is no longer in
> perl-modules-5.22, and libmodule-build-perl automatically gets
> removed by aptitude because it is no longer recommended, so that
> the module is no longer present at all.
> 
> Other modules might be affected by the same problem. I could see
> many packages that were removed, but I don't know which ones were
> redundant.
> 
> The upgrade should not remove any module that can still be useful
> (perhaps unless this is announced in the NEWS.Debian file, so that
> the user has a chance to reinstall what needs be before he's
> wondering what's wrong).

You're right that it would have been nice to have a NEWS item about
this, for which I apologise. It seems upstream removed Module::Build
and CGI without the normal deprecation cycle which would normally trigger
us to add the Recommends or Suggests (usually for one release cycle).
All packages which were known to use these modules have of course have
bugs filed against them.

I don't agree, however, that functionality being removed from a package
upstream warrants the bug severity you've given it. Nor do I think that
the perl package should recommend a package that was removed upstream
in the case that there was no deprecation cycle followed by upstream;
that would only be delaying the pain.

I will add a NEWS item for the next upload.

Dominic.