Bug#1077764: Ruling request on os-release specification implementation

>>>>> "Luca" == Luca Boccassi <[email protected]> writes:

    Luca> On Fri, 2 Aug 2024 at 13:00, Simon McVittie <[email protected]> wrote:
    >> 
    >> On Fri, 02 Aug 2024 at 12:19:20 +0100, Luca Boccassi wrote:
    >> > To further clarify why the status quo with
    >> VERSION_CODENAME=trixie in > sid is really bad: it used to be
    >> that if you had "debian" mentioned in > os-release but no other
    >> version identifying fields, you knew you were > on testing OR
    >> unstable and you'd have to deploy horrendous hacks to > attempt
    >> and figure out which of the two it was really.
    >> 
    >> OK, I think this is progress:
    >> 
    >> What is the scenario / use-case in which it becomes necessary to
    >> distinguish between those two suites?
    >> 
    >> To put that another way, what external piece of software needs to
    >> change its behaviour, dependent on whether you are running
    >> testing (of an unspecified datestamp) or unstable (of an
    >> unspecified datestamp)?
    >> 
    >> Or perhaps you are thinking of a scenario in which a *person*
    >> needs to change their behaviour, dependent on whether they are
    >> running testing or unstable?

    Luca> Are the examples I provided at:

    Luca> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1077764#43
    Luca> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1077764#5

Not to me.
I read what I think is the examples you linked from both bug reports.
I didn't dig too far into the github links you provided though.
What I see from your mail is that people want to distinguish unstable
from testing and have created various hacks to do so.

What I do not see is a compelling explanation of why Debian as a project
wants to encourage that distinction.
I agree that people doing a thing is evidence that it has value to those
people.
But I do not think you provided an explanation of what that value is.

If it were easy to distinguish testing from unstable, why would I want
to do that?

--Sam