Bug#1136715: Please update ben for release.debian.org

On Fri, 15 May 2026 07:02:37 +0200 =?utf-8?q?St=C3=A9phane_Glondu?= <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Package: release.debian.org
> Severity: important
>
> Dear Release Team,
>
>
> Until ben 1.17, build profiles were completely ignored by "ben
> monitor" (which generates transition tracker pages) when computing
> dependency levels.
>
> In dh-ocaml 3.0, I introduced a build profile (pkg.dh-ocaml.bootstrap)
> that has build-dependency cycles and cannot be built when
> bootstrapping or doing an OCaml transition. It should never be used on
> buildds. It should not be taken into account in monitor. However it
> currently is, and as a consequence 13 levels (or so) of the OCaml
> permanent tracker page are collapsed into 1.
>
> In ben 1.18, I decided to evaluate build-dependencies as on buildds:
> take first alternative of disjunctions, and assume no build
> profiles. This introduced a regression with multiarch specifiers,
> which I fixed in ben 1.19.
>
>
> AFAIU, transition tracking pages are genenerated on respighi which
> still runs bookworm and ben 0.10.1. The latest versions of ben do not
> compile as-is on bookworm because of toolchain changes.
>
> Therefore, I recompiled the OCaml world from sid (albeit with OCaml
> 5.4.1) on bookworm (enough to compile ben):
>
>   https://ocaml.debian.net/backports/20260514/
>
> Trying the resulting ben on respighi, I faced a regression with
> projectb import, which I fixed in ben 1.20. The resulting binaries can
> be found in:
>
>   https://ocaml.debian.net/backports/20260514/repo/pool/ben/
>
> On respighi, one can take only:
>
>  - /usr/bin/ben
>  - /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ocaml/5.4.1/ben/templates/debianrt
>
> from ben_*.deb above, and run ben with BEN_TEMPLATES_DIR appropriately
> set. (I do not recommend directly installing packages from the
> repository above on respighi.)
>
>
> Alternatively, I backported the changes from ben 1.18 and 1.19 into a
> "bookworm" branch in ben:
>
>   https://salsa.debian.org/debian/ben/-/commits/bookworm
>
> It compiles on bookworm, and the resulting package should be directly
> (system-)installable on respighi...but is based on the old 0.10.1
> version. My recommendation would be using a non-system install of
> 1.20 instead, as explained above.
>
>
> Other changes in 0.10.1..1.20 that might be of interest for the