python3-patchman dependencies

[mdhowle]

Hello,
Thank you for this project. I had a question about the python3-patchman Debian package.

Why is apache2 a hard dependency for python3-patchman? From what I can tell, python3-patchman.install only installs the example apache configuration.

I'm already using nginx on the server, so having apache2 installed automatically seems unnecessary.

Would it be possible to move apache2 to Recommends? Another option is to split the installation to another package, like python3-patchman-apache2, that would be optionally installed the configuration file to keep that functionality. Also, redis-server could be moved to Suggests.

Thanks

[furlongm]

It was a means to getting a default install working out of the box for most people. I know debian supports depending on a webserver with a default if none is already installed. So we could try that. I think it's something like

Depends: apache2 | httpd, ${misc:Depends}

It would need some testing to get the correct syntax.

[mdhowle]

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

With libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3 also a dependency, I'm afraid python3-patchman would still pull in apache2 as a dependency.

These changes below will create a new package, python3-patchman-apache2, that would install the Apache configuration file. It is "recommended" by the python3-patchman package, so it would be installed automatically (assuming the user is using default options).

This is vaguely similar to how certbot suggests python3-certbot-apache2 and python3-certbot-nginx. (best example I can find at the moment 🙂 )

What do you think?

diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index f2b052d..46f0653 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -18,11 +18,12 @@ Depends: ${misc:Depends}, python3 (>= 3.11), python3-django (>= 4.2),
  python3-django-filters, python3-debian,
  python3-rpm, python3-tqdm, python3-defusedxml, python3-pip, python3-tenacity,
  python3-requests, python3-colorama, python3-magic, python3-humanize,
- python3-yaml, libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3, apache2, sqlite3,
+ python3-yaml, sqlite3,
  celery, python3-celery, python3-django-celery-beat, redis-server,
  python3-redis, python3-git, python3-django-taggit, python3-zstandard,
  python3-django-tables2, python3-django-select2, adduser
 Suggests: python3-mysqldb, python3-psycopg2, python3-pymemcache, memcached
+Recommends: python3-patchman-apache2
 Description: Django-based patch status monitoring tool for linux systems.
  Patchman provides a web interface for monitoring host package updates.
  .
@@ -40,6 +41,29 @@ Description: Django-based patch status monitoring tool for linux systems.
  optionally send reports to the patchman server every time packages are
  installed or removed.
 
+Package: python3-patchman-apache2
+Architecture: all
+Homepage: https://github.com/furlongm/patchman
+Depends: apache2, libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3, ${misc:Depends}
+Description: Django-based patch status monitoring tool for linux systems (apache2)
+ Patchman provides a web interface for monitoring host package updates.
+ .
+ Patchman clients send a list of installed packages and enabled repositories to
+ the patchman server. The patchman server updates its package list for each
+ repository and determines which hosts require updates, whether those updates
+ are normal or security updates, and shows installed packages that are not part
+ of any repository. Hosts, packages, repositories and operating systems can all
+ be filtered (using features or arbitrary tags). For example, it is possible to
+ find out which hosts have a certain version of a package installed, and which
+ repository it comes from.
+ .
+ Patchman does not install update packages on hosts, it determines and records
+ what updates are available for each host. The patchman yum and apt plugins can
+ optionally send reports to the patchman server every time packages are
+ installed or removed.
+ .
+ This package provides the configuration for apache2 HTTP server
+
 Package: patchman-client
 Architecture: all
 Homepage: https://github.com/furlongm/patchman
diff --git a/debian/python3-patchman-apache2.install b/debian/python3-patchman-apache2.install
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..527cd40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/python3-patchman-apache2.install
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+#!/usr/bin/dh-exec
+etc/patchman/apache.conf.example => etc/apache2/conf-available/patchman.conf
diff --git a/debian/python3-patchman.install b/debian/python3-patchman.install
index a5488ca..6507b61 100755
--- a/debian/python3-patchman.install
+++ b/debian/python3-patchman.install
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 #!/usr/bin/dh-exec
-etc/patchman/apache.conf.example => etc/apache2/conf-available/patchman.conf
 etc/patchman/local_settings.py etc/patchman
 etc/systemd/system/patchman-celery-worker@.service usr/lib/systemd/system
 etc/systemd/system/patchman-celery-beat.service => usr/lib/systemd/system/patchman-celery-beat.service