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

On Sat, Aug 03, 2024 at 08:07:14PM +0200, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> For what it's worth, I do have one argument in favour of your position.
> In the nbd autopkgtest, I need to do a debootstrap of "whatever we are
> currently running". That code starts off with "parse os-release", and
> then falls back to a horrible horrible perl script that parses
> apt-cache policy output if os-release looks like testing or unstable,
> because the autopkgtest needs to test the version that we're running,
> not "always unstable", and this is just a pain. If os-release were to
> distinguish "unstable" from "testing", then I would be able to get rid
> of that perl script (and good riddance)

I have a very similar problem in my ansible playbooks, with my fleet
containing both testing and unstable reference systems AND systems that
run testing but will automatically move to stable once testing is
released as stable.

I would also love to be able to get rid of my heuristics to distinguish
testing from unstable. My heuristics are not nearly as ugly as yours,
but I would not cry while removing them.

Greetings
Marc