update script in ubuntu-meta not handling germinate or specified versions

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The debdiff is against 1.481 in jammy, please rebase against the latest version in the development release (currently 1.501 in lunar). You can use 'pull-lp-source ubuntu-meta' for this.
Please also close this bug in the changelog e.g. (LP: #2017786).

We should probably do the same for all the flavour meta packages as well, so this bug should be marked as affecting ubuntu-unity-meta, ubuntucinnamon-meta, etc.

Unsubscribing sponsors for now.

Please find attached updated debdiff

Okay, ?th time lucky

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-meta - 1.502

---------------
ubuntu-meta (1.502) mantic; urgency=medium

  * Fix update script to include germinate in 'dependency' check and
    refactor script LP: #2017786

 -- Tim Andersson <email address hidden> Fri, 28 Apr 2023 09:09:28 +0100

I do not see what this change was supposed to solve. I disagree with the *existing* version check in germinate, and do not want to see more of these - it imposes needless barriers for updating the metapackages.

Now that I've had some time to look at the patch, I really don't see it solving anything. After seeing Steve's comment, I do agree, it simply puts up needless barriers to updating metapackages. Sorry, but from Ubuntu Studio and Edubuntu, this is a Nack. I hope other flavors follow suit and don't accept this patch.

@eeickmeyer - the version of the change that actually landed in the package essentially adds the following to the update script:

+if ! which germinate-update-metapackage >/dev/null; then
+ echo >&2 "please install germinate"
+ exit 1
+fi

I think this is a useful improvement as not everyone has germinate installed but do as you wish with your packages.

@brian-murray

Agreed, simply checking to see whether or not germinate is installed or not is a good idea. However, checking which version is installed, as is currently done with debootstrap, is a bit overkill and I disagree with the debootstrap version check to begin with.

Realistically, if one is running the update script on the current LTS or higher, it shouldn't cause problems and the version check seems to be at least encouraging the update to run on the development version. This seems odd as germinate is pulling from whatever is configured in update.cfg regardless of what series it's being run on, so the version checks just seem like, as Steve put it, needless barriers.

So, in summary, your check for germinate seems sane. A wholesale version check seems overkill and unnecessary.