Bug 25646

Summary:	git cvsimport broken by removing cvsps
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	Konrad Bernlöhr <Konrad.Bernloehr>
Component:	RPM Packages	Assignee:	Mageia Bug Squad <bugsquad>
Status:	RESOLVED WONTFIX	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Normal	CC:	geiger.david68210, lewyssmith, ouaurelien
Version:	7	Keywords:	UPSTREAM
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Source RPM:	git-2.21.0-2.mga7.src.rpm	CVE:
Status comment:

Description Konrad Bernlöhr 2019-10-31 19:14:29 CET

The git cvsimport tool requires the cvsps package. This was broken by the
following change, it seems:

* Fr Apr 05 2019 daviddavid <daviddavid> 1:2.21.0-2.mga7
+ Revision: 1386047
- replace cvsps for cvs-fast-export from git-cvs sub-pkg

The 'git-cvs' package it still produced, including
/usr/lib64/git-core/git-cvsimport
but it is no longer working without cvsps.

While cvs-fast-export can replace some of the functionality obtained
with git cvsimport but it is not a replacement suitable for every use case. In my case the incremental conversion of changes in CVS repositories to git.
The artificial conflict of cvs-fast-export-1.48-1.mga7 with cvsps < 2.2b1-9
does not solve the problem that the git-cvs-2.21.0-2.mga7 package gets
build with a non-working git-cvsimport.
Installation of the 'git-cvs' package should require cvsps.

Actually, there is no cvsps package in Mageia 7. I suspect because of bugs in the Mageia6 source package cvsps-2.2b1-7.mga6.src.rpm, resulting in compiler warnings. It was not difficult at all to build a cvsps package, based on
cvsps-2.2b1-7.mga6.src.rpm, the patches from cvsps-2.2-0.24.b1.fc30.src.rpm
and a little extra patch of my own for a remaining snprintf problem.
Builds without problems and works just fine, for git-cvsimport at least.
Available on request, with source rpm termed cvsps-2.2b1-10.mga7.src.rpm to
make cvs-fast-export-1.48-1.mga7 happy.

Now the formal bug with the git source package is that the produced 'git-cvs' package installs without dependency on cvsps. Adding this dependency would not help to get git-cvsimport working, since there is no cvsps in Mageia7. 
I suppose adding a new cvsps package in Mageia7 is frowned upon. 

So what could be the strategy for other users of Mageia7 to get a working
git-cvsimport as well?

Comment 1 David GEIGER 2019-11-01 07:15:27 CET

see http://www.catb.org/esr/cvsps/

cvsps is no more maintained for a while this is why it was removed. So if cvs-fast-export does not do the job because of lack of some functionality it should be reported upstream.

https://gitlab.com/esr/cvs-fast-export

CC: (none) => geiger.david68210

Comment 2 Lewis Smith 2019-11-01 11:19:50 CET

Thank you David for your comments. From the first URL re cvsps:
"Deprecation warning: this code has been end-of-lifed by its maintainer. Use cvs-fast-export instead."
is unambiguous. So it would be wrong for Mageia to include it.

> While cvs-fast-export can replace some of the functionality obtained with
> git cvsimport but it is not a replacement suitable for every use case
At least there is some useful functionality.

> if cvs-fast-export does not do the job because of lack of some functionality
> it should be reported upstream.
Perhaps: https://gitlab.com/esr/cvs-fast-export/issues
@Konrad, if you do that, please note on this bug the link to that bug report.
It is seldom possible for one distribution to fix an upstream problem.

> I suppose adding a new cvsps package in Mageia7 is frowned upon. 
Not at all; requests for new packages are normal. But not superseded ones.

CC: (none) => lewyssmith
Keywords: (none) => UPSTREAM

Comment 3 Aurelien Oudelet 2020-08-23 17:45:59 CEST

Closing this, we can't afford to do upstream job.
Also, we can't provide deprecated upstream lib or app.

Reporter, please, if you want, report like Lewis requested in Comment 2.

Resolution: (none) => WONTFIX
CC: (none) => ouaurelien
Status: NEW => RESOLVED

Comment 4 Konrad Bernlöhr 2020-08-23 19:26:45 CEST

Dear Aurelien,

Since I am more or less aware of the limited man power of the Mageia team (but don't have enough spare time at my hands to really contribute), I will just continue to use my personal cvsps version - I am not really considering to change to Fedora just for this single package.

Refering me to cvs-fast-export does not help at all, since that,
by design, works on the RCS file level. That limitation is already in the first sentence of the README. Thus it cannot help when I only have
CVS server access but no filesystem access.

Thanks anyway for considering my request.