Purpose unclear of unknown file /etc/apache2/apache2.conf.in

Thanks for your report and for making Ubuntu better.

I can confirm this bug. The .in file was added as of:

apache2 (2.4.18-2ubuntu3.16) xenial; urgency=medium

  * On Linux, use pthread mutexes. On kfreebsd/hurd, continue using
    fctnl because they lack robust pthread mutexes.
    (LP: #1565744)

 -- Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> Thu, 16 Jul 2020 00:20:55 +0000

but you're correct in saying that the changelog entry does not mention the file. You are also correct in your guess: the file is a leftover of a search-and-replace operation; it should have probably been removed after the replace took place.

Even though the .in file is harmless (Apache will not try to load it in any way), it should not have been installed. I am marking this bug as Triaged and will contact Bryce to sync.

Thanks!

Yeah I remember this, thanks for raising it I'll take a look when I get a chance.

debian/apache2.install contains:

debian/bash_completion/a2enmod /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/
debian/config-dir/* /etc/apache2
debian/a2enmod /usr/sbin
...

We need to backport the changes for apache2.install list config-dir contents more explicitly:

debian/config-dir/*-available /etc/apache2
debian/config-dir/*.conf /etc/apache2
debian/config-dir/envvars /etc/apache2
debian/config-dir/magic /etc/apache2

This covers all the items in Xenial's config-dir that we want, i.e.:

$ ls config-dir/
apache2.conf.in conf-available/ envvars magic mods-available/ ports.conf sites-available/

Hello thermoman, or anyone else affected,

Accepted apache2 into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apache2/2.4.18-2ubuntu3.18 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-xenial to verification-done-xenial. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-xenial. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted apache2 (2.4.18-2ubuntu3.18) for xenial have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

passenger/5.0.27-2 (amd64, armhf, s390x, arm64, ppc64el, i386)
mod-wsgi/4.3.0-1.1ubuntu1 (amd64, armhf, s390x, arm64, ppc64el, i386)
apache2/2.4.18-2ubuntu3.18 (amd64, armhf, s390x, arm64, ppc64el, i386)
horizon/2:9.1.2-0ubuntu5 (amd64, armhf, s390x, arm64, ppc64el, i386)
libapache2-mod-python/3.3.1-11ubuntu2 (amd64, armhf, s390x, arm64, ppc64el, i386)
subversion/1.9.3-2ubuntu1.3 (amd64, armhf, s390x, arm64, ppc64el, i386)
php7.0/7.0.33-0ubuntu0.16.04.16 (amd64, armhf, s390x, arm64, ppc64el, i386)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/xenial/update_excuses.html#apache2

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted apache2 (2.4.18-2ubuntu3.18) for xenial have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

libapache2-mod-python/3.3.1-11ubuntu2 (amd64, armhf, arm64, i386, ppc64el, s390x)
php7.0/7.0.33-0ubuntu0.16.04.16 (amd64, armhf, arm64, i386, ppc64el, s390x)
mod-wsgi/4.3.0-1.1ubuntu1 (amd64, armhf, arm64, i386, ppc64el, s390x)
subversion/1.9.3-2ubuntu1.3 (amd64, armhf, arm64, i386, ppc64el, s390x)
horizon/2:9.1.2-0ubuntu5 (amd64, armhf, arm64, i386, ppc64el, s390x)
apache2/2.4.18-2ubuntu3.18 (amd64, armhf, arm64, i386, ppc64el, s390x)
passenger/5.0.27-2 (amd64, armhf, arm64, i386, ppc64el, s390x)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/xenial/update_excuses.html#apache2

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted apache2 (2.4.18-2ubuntu3.18) for xenial have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

mod-wsgi/4.3.0-1.1ubuntu1 (arm64, s390x, amd64, i386, armhf, ppc64el)
php7.0/7.0.33-0ubuntu0.16.04.16 (arm64, s390x, amd64, i386, armhf, ppc64el)
passenger/5.0.27-2 (arm64, s390x, amd64, i386, armhf, ppc64el)
apache2/2.4.18-2ubuntu3.18 (arm64, s390x, amd64, i386, armhf, ppc64el)
subversion/1.9.3-2ubuntu1.3 (arm64, s390x, amd64, i386, armhf, ppc64el)
horizon/2:9.1.2-0ubuntu5 (arm64, s390x, amd64, i386, armhf, ppc64el)
libapache2-mod-python/3.3.1-11ubuntu2 (arm64, s390x, amd64, i386, armhf, ppc64el)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/xenial/update_excuses.html#apache2

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

Due to an unrelated regression in 2.4.18-2ubuntu3.18, that sru has been pulled from xenial-proposed.

Reopening this bug, as we might try landing this fix another time later.

Xenial has transitioned to ESM, so it is unlikely that this bug will be fixed. Hence, I am setting it as WONTFIX.