6 ms·

For next time: dpkg -S path/to/file gives the the name of the package containing a file, and dpkg -s package-name gives you the name of the maintain

For next time: dpkg -S path/to/file gives the the name of the package containing a file, and dpkg -s package-name gives you the name of the maintainer.

ktjfi 8y ago
All mails I've sent to maintainers of packages regarding issues with them have been ignored. I think they prefer you to use the bug tracker. (Which sucks, so I always end up doing nothing about it.) In the end I switched all my servers to Ubuntu. It's been good and I love PPAs.
- iforgotpassword 8y ago
  Ubuntu bug reporting is just as shitty. No reply for 6+ months was common for me. One time I even tracked down the issue, which was fixed upstream just one commit after the one they used for their package. Still no reaction, but about a year later they asked of the problem still persists with the current release. I didn't bother to reply and stopped reporting to either Ubuntu or Debian.
  - lokedhs 8y ago
    I had the same experience. After an Ubuntu update, my workstation was suddenly not able to mount an NFS filesystem from FreeBSD when Kerberos was enabled. The bug was rather quickly marked as confirmed, with absolutely no updates for several years, even though the root cause was known. As far as I know, it still hasn't been fixed.
    - dman 8y ago
      Exact same experience. The best bug reporting experiences I had were with arch and Nix.
- dTal 8y ago
  My experience: I submitted a bug once, with patch, using the official bug tracker and jumping through all the hoops. It was ignored completely. When I went on IRC, the response was "perhaps you'd like to become the package maintainer?". The bug remains to this day.
- JohnFen 8y ago
  > I think they prefer you to use the bug tracker. (Which sucks, so I always end up doing nothing about it.) Oh, so much this. The crappiness of bug reporting for Debian has meant that I stopped trying to report issues years ago.
robocat 8y ago
Thanks! I suspect with that I can probably find the repository, so that I can check whether the comment has already been fixed, then I can work out how to submit a patch or bug.
- thom 8y ago
  Usually worth just following this workflow: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
  - robocat 8y ago
    That is useful for reporting bugs. I am a developer so every now and then I make a concerted effort to diagnose a bug, then fix it, then do a pull request. However, I do admit I usually give up before getting to the point of submitting something useful...
perlgeek 8y ago
> dpkg -S path/to/file In the case of config files, this only seems to work sometimes -- maybe if it wasn't modified by the user? Or if it came from a package directly, and wasn't generated from its {pre,post}inst scripts? $ dpkg -S /etc/hosts dpkg-query: no path found matching pattern /etc/hosts $ dpkg -S /etc/resolv.conf dpkg-query: no path found matching pattern /etc/resolv.conf $ dpkg -S /etc/bash_completion bash-completion: /etc/bash_completion
- JoshTriplett 8y ago
  `dpkg -S /path/to/file` only works if the file belongs to a package. `/etc/resolv.conf` gets created dynamically at runtime. `/etc/hosts` gets created at installation time because it includes the hostname (which ought to get replaced with nss-myhostname).
harry8 8y ago
I like it. #!/bin/bash set -e set -u if ! [[ ${1:-} ]]; then echo please provide a file fi dpkg -s $(dpkg -S "$1" | cut -d: -f 1) | grep Maintainer

For next time: dpkg -S path/to/file gives the the name of the package containing a file, and dpkg -s package-name gives you the name of the maintainer.

ktjfi 8y ago

All mails I've sent to maintainers of packages regarding issues with them have been ignored. I think they prefer you to use the bug tracker. (Which sucks, so I always end up doing nothing about it.) In the end I switched all my servers to Ubuntu. It's been good and I love PPAs.

iforgotpassword 8y ago
Ubuntu bug reporting is just as shitty. No reply for 6+ months was common for me. One time I even tracked down the issue, which was fixed upstream just one commit after the one they used for their package. Still no reaction, but about a year later they asked of the problem still persists with the current release. I didn't bother to reply and stopped reporting to either Ubuntu or Debian.
- lokedhs 8y ago
  I had the same experience. After an Ubuntu update, my workstation was suddenly not able to mount an NFS filesystem from FreeBSD when Kerberos was enabled. The bug was rather quickly marked as confirmed, with absolutely no updates for several years, even though the root cause was known. As far as I know, it still hasn't been fixed.
  - dman 8y ago
    Exact same experience. The best bug reporting experiences I had were with arch and Nix.
dTal 8y ago
My experience: I submitted a bug once, with patch, using the official bug tracker and jumping through all the hoops. It was ignored completely. When I went on IRC, the response was "perhaps you'd like to become the package maintainer?". The bug remains to this day.
JohnFen 8y ago
> I think they prefer you to use the bug tracker. (Which sucks, so I always end up doing nothing about it.) Oh, so much this. The crappiness of bug reporting for Debian has meant that I stopped trying to report issues years ago.

robocat 8y ago

Thanks! I suspect with that I can probably find the repository, so that I can check whether the comment has already been fixed, then I can work out how to submit a patch or bug.

thom 8y ago
Usually worth just following this workflow: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
- robocat 8y ago
  That is useful for reporting bugs. I am a developer so every now and then I make a concerted effort to diagnose a bug, then fix it, then do a pull request. However, I do admit I usually give up before getting to the point of submitting something useful...

perlgeek 8y ago

> dpkg -S path/to/file In the case of config files, this only seems to work sometimes -- maybe if it wasn't modified by the user? Or if it came from a package directly, and wasn't generated from its {pre,post}inst scripts? $ dpkg -S /etc/hosts dpkg-query: no path found matching pattern /etc/hosts $ dpkg -S /etc/resolv.conf dpkg-query: no path found matching pattern /etc/resolv.conf $ dpkg -S /etc/bash_completion bash-completion: /etc/bash_completion

JoshTriplett 8y ago
`dpkg -S /path/to/file` only works if the file belongs to a package. `/etc/resolv.conf` gets created dynamically at runtime. `/etc/hosts` gets created at installation time because it includes the hostname (which ought to get replaced with nss-myhostname).

harry8 8y ago

I like it. #!/bin/bash set -e set -u if ! [[ ${1:-} ]]; then echo please provide a file fi dpkg -s $(dpkg -S "$1" | cut -d: -f 1) | grep Maintainer