[FFe] remove ubuntu-support-status as its a confusing mess

Bug #1873362 reported by Brian Murray
10
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Release Notes for Ubuntu
Won't Fix
Undecided
Unassigned
update-manager (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

update-manager-core includes a script called ubuntu-support-status which sells itself as a tool to "Show supported [and unsupported] packages on this machine". However, the term supported is not defined and can mean a variety of things (technical support, regular updates, security updates) to different people. Additionally, the output is actually confusing as zsync (from universe) is included as unsupported while python2.7 (also from universe) is shown as supported for 3 years. Additionally, upower (from main) is shown as supported for 3 years. So in addition to the term being confusing why packages are in one category or another is also confusing. Finally, part of the reason for the confusing mix of support periods is that flavors can have their own "supported" time frame and they have not been contacted about what that support time frame should be.

Subsequently, there is a merge proposal to stop generating the Supported field for Ubuntu 20.04.

https://code.launchpad.net/~xnox/ubuntu-archive-publishing/no-more-supported/+merge/382444

As there will be no Supported information in packages anymore ubuntu-support-status will be unusable and should be removed.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: update-manager 1:20.04.5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-21.25-generic 5.4.27
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-21-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu26
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: X-Cinnamon
Date: Thu Apr 16 14:35:28 2020
GsettingsChanges:
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-width' b'647'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'launch-count' b'84'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'first-run' b'false'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'launch-time' b'int64 1586972193'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-height' b'701'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-08-10 (615 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: update-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Related branches

Revision history for this message
Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Stéphane Graber (stgraber) wrote :

Sounds fine, will this be covered in the release notes with a pointer to whatever replaces it?

I've seen many users use/rely on this tool, so silently dropping it will be confusing and should be covered.

summary: - remove ubuntu-support-status as its a confusing mess
+ [FFe] remove ubuntu-support-status as its a confusing mess
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package update-manager - 1:20.04.9

---------------
update-manager (1:20.04.9) focal; urgency=medium

  * Remove ubuntu-support-status as the term support can be confusing and the
    Supported field has been removed from Launchpad packages. (LP: #1873362)
  * Add ubuntu-security-status - a tool for displaying information about
    packages installed and the kind of updates which they may or may not
    receive. (LP: #1873362)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Fri, 17 Apr 2020 15:06:52 -0700

Changed in update-manager (Ubuntu):
status: New → Fix Released
Changed in ubuntu-release-notes:
status: New → Won't Fix
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