Hello,
Following the guidelines from https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting I'm requesting advice on what package to file my bug against. The bug relates
to whether Perl should be a package dependency of linux-base. Package linux-base provides /usr/bin/linux-version which can be invoked by many
things that interact with initramfs / firmware generation, kernel level
build stuff. If perl is not installed the invocation will fail. If this
occurs when creating a chroot (eg via mmdebstrap as we are), this breaks
the build. A workaround is to specify perl in the list of packages that get installed in the chroot.
While package linux-base does not require perl, it installs a script that
if invoked will fail to run if perl is not installed. This problem goes unnoticed if installing a system from minbase or friends (because perl is pulled by something), but it shows up if doing a custom chroot build where
a specific list of packages is used (and therefore expected to be installed
in) the chroot.
Should I raise this as a bug against linux-base? It seems reasonable. If
not, which package would be appropriate?
Many thanks,
-- Matt


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.6
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Le 26/01/2026 … 13:28, Matthew Lear a ‚critÿ:

Hello,
Following the guidelines from https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting <https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting> I'm requesting advice on what package to file my bug against. The bug relates to whether Perl
shouldÿbe a package dependency of linux-base. Package linux-base
providesÿ/usr/bin/linux-version which can be invoked by many things that interact with initramfs / firmware generation,ÿkernel level build stuff.
If perl is not installed the invocation will fail. If this occurs when creating a chroot (eg via mmdebstrap as we are), this breaks the build.
A workaround is to specify perl in the list of packages that get
installed in the chroot.

While package linux-base does not require perl, it installs a script
that if invoked will fail to run if perl is not installed. This problem
goes unnoticed if installing a system from minbase or friends (because
perl is pulled by something), but it shows up if doing a custom
chrootÿbuild where a specific list of packages is used (and therefore expected to be installed in) the chroot.

Should I raise this as a bug against linux-base? It seems reasonable. If not, which package would be appropriate?

Many thanks,
--ÿ Matt

Hello Matt,

I don't know if perl should be a dependency of linux-base but is
perl-base installed on this system?
didier@hp-notebook14:~$ apt show perl-base
Package: perl-base
Version: 5.40.1-6
Priority: required
[...]

didier@hp-notebook14:~$ LANG=en-US.UTF-8; apt list '~prequired'
apt/stable,now 3.0.3 amd64 [installed]
base-files/stable,now 13.8+deb13u3 amd64 [installed]
base-passwd/stable,now 3.6.7 amd64 [installed]
bash/stable,now 5.2.37-2+b7 amd64 [installed]
bsdutils/stable,now 1:2.41-5 amd64 [installed]
coreutils/stable,now 9.7-3 amd64 [installed]
dash/stable,now 0.5.12-12 amd64 [installed]
debconf/stable,now 1.5.91 all [installed]
debianutils/stable,now 5.23.2 amd64 [installed]
diffutils/stable,now 1:3.10-4 amd64 [installed]
dpkg/stable,now 1.22.21 amd64 [installed]
findutils/stable,now 4.10.0-3 amd64 [installed]
grep/stable,now 3.11-4 amd64 [installed]
gzip/stable,now 1.13-1 amd64 [installed]
hostname/stable,now 3.25 amd64 [installed]
init-system-helpers/stable,now 1.69~deb13u1 all [installed]
libc-bin/stable,now 2.41-12+deb13u1 amd64 [installed] libpam-modules-bin/stable,now 1.7.0-5 amd64 [installed] libpam-modules/stable,now 1.7.0-5 amd64 [installed]
libpam-runtime/stable,now 1.7.0-5 all [installed]
login.defs/stable,now 1:4.17.4-2 all [installed,automatic]
login/stable,now 1:4.16.0-2+really2.41-5 amd64 [installed]
mawk/stable,now 1.3.4.20250131-1 amd64 [installed]
mount/stable,now 2.41-5 amd64 [installed]
ncurses-base/stable,now 6.5+20250216-2 all [installed]
ncurses-bin/stable,now 6.5+20250216-2 amd64 [installed]
passwd/stable,now 1:4.17.4-2 amd64 [installed]
perl-base/stable,now 5.40.1-6 amd64 [installed]
sed/stable,now 4.9-2 amd64 [installed]
sysvinit-utils/stable,now 3.14-4 amd64 [installed]
tar/stable,now 1.35+dfsg-3.1 amd64 [installed]
tzdata/stable,now 2025b-4+deb13u1 all [installed]
util-linux/stable,now 2.41-5 amd64 [installed]

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.6
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Hi,

On Mon, Jan 26, 2026 at 12:28:46PM +0000, Matthew Lear wrote:

Should I raise this as a bug against linux-base? It seems reasonable. If
not, which package would be appropriate?

I think it's reasonable to ask the maintainers of linux-base (by way of
a bug report) if there should be an explicit dependency there, but
perl-base is of "required" priority so it's normally expected to be
there.

I am not sure what Debian policy is in this regard ? perhaps someone
more knowledgeable will chime in ? but possibly packages are not
expected to declare such dependencies and you may be told that you are
doing something out of the ordinary (wontfix/notabug).

Thanks,
Andy

--
https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.6
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Andy wrote:

On Mon, Jan 26, 2026 at 12:28:46PM +0000, Matthew Lear wrote:

Should I raise this as a bug against linux-base? It seems reasonable. If
not, which package would be appropriate?

I think it's reasonable to ask the maintainers of linux-base (by way of
a bug report) if there should be an explicit dependency there, but
perl-base is of "required" priority so it's normally expected to be
there.

I am not sure what Debian policy is in this regard ? perhaps someone
more knowledgeable will chime in ? but possibly packages are not
expected to declare such dependencies and you may be told that you are
doing something out of the ordinary (wontfix/notabug).

Exactly. Priority: required packages are deliberately left out of
explicit dependencies, that's the whole point.

Matthew: if you're doing a custom chroot you need to be aware of
this. It's up to you to install the minimum dependencies. Check the
behaviour of debootstrap for examples here.

--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve@einval.com Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky,
Tongue-tied & twisted, Just an earth-bound misfit, I...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.6
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, Jan 26, 2026 at 03:35:17PM +0000, Steve McIntyre wrote:

Andy wrote:

I think it's reasonable to ask the maintainers of linux-base (by way of
a bug report) if there should be an explicit dependency there, but >perl-base is of "required" priority so it's normally expected to be
there.

I am not sure what Debian policy is in this regard ? perhaps someone
more knowledgeable will chime in ? but possibly packages are not
expected to declare such dependencies and you may be told that you are >doing something out of the ordinary (wontfix/notabug).

Exactly. Priority: required packages are deliberately left out of
explicit dependencies, that's the whole point.

Sorry, no. It's the Essential flag what makes dependencies not
to be required. If package A needs package B which is required
but not Essential:yes, it still needs the dependency.

In this case perl-base is Essential: yes, so if whatever thing
that needs perl works ok with perl-base (sorry, did not follow
the thread from the beginning), then the dependency would
not be needed.

Thanks.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.6
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)