[gentoo-user] problem emerging dev-php/xdebug

[John Covici]

Hi. In trying to do my latest world update I ran into the following
portage output:

!!! Problem resolving dependencies for dev-php/xdebug from @selected
... done!
Dependency resolution took 5.26 s.


!!! The ebuild selected to satisfy "dev-php/xdebug" has unmet
requirements.
- dev-php/xdebug-3.1.5::gentoo USE="" ABI_X86="(64)"
PHP_TARGETS="(-php7-4) -php8-0 -php8-1"

The following REQUIRED_USE flag constraints are unsatisfied:
any-of ( php_targets_php7-4 php_targets_php8-0
php_targets_php8-1 )

(dependency required by "@selected" [set])
(dependency required by "@world" [argument])

Now I have in a package.use file
dev-php/xdebug php_targets_php7-4

which I thought was correct. So how to fix?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[John Covici]

OK, thanks, funny portage said any of ... and it listed the php 7.4,
that is what tripped me up.

On Mon, 28 Aug 2023 09:04:33 -0400,

Post by John Covici
any-of ( php_targets_php7-4 php_targets_php8-0
php_targets_php8-1 )
Now I have in a package.use file
dev-php/xdebug php_targets_php7-4
which I thought was correct. So how to fix?

The parantheses around php 7.4 in PHP_TARGETS="(-php7-4) -php8-0
-php8-1" means that this flag is masked. dev-lang/php:7.4 is also
masked, so I assume this is due to be removed soon. You should move to
8.0 or 8.1 to successfully install this package.
Regards,
Arve

[Arve Barsnes]

Post by John Covici
OK, thanks, funny portage said any of ... and it listed the php 7.4,
that is what tripped me up.

That's because the package itself still lists it as a possibility, but
the php 7.4 is masked at a higher level. The package will be updated
in time, and you would get more or less the same error message. Timing
these kinds of changes across the repository can be hard :)

Regards,
Arve

[Arve Barsnes]

Post by John Covici
any-of ( php_targets_php7-4 php_targets_php8-0
php_targets_php8-1 )
Now I have in a package.use file
dev-php/xdebug php_targets_php7-4
which I thought was correct. So how to fix?

The parantheses around php 7.4 in PHP_TARGETS="(-php7-4) -php8-0
-php8-1" means that this flag is masked. dev-lang/php:7.4 is also
masked, so I assume this is due to be removed soon. You should move to
8.0 or 8.1 to successfully install this package.

Regards,
Arve

[Matt Connell]

dev-lang/php:7.4 is also masked, so I assume this is due to be 
removed soon.

7.X is EOL upstream as of 9 months ago, hence the mask.

It was acknowledged in the mask commit that we would lose access to
some other packages because of this deprecation, but that's again an
upstream issue rather than a Gentoo one. Gentoo is favoring security
by masking 7.4, but you can always override it as you see fit for your
system(s).

[Michael Orlitzky]

Post by Matt Connell

dev-lang/php:7.4 is also masked, so I assume this is due to be 
removed soon.

7.X is EOL upstream as of 9 months ago, hence the mask.
It was acknowledged in the mask commit that we would lose access to
some other packages because of this deprecation, but that's again an
upstream issue rather than a Gentoo one. Gentoo is favoring security
by masking 7.4, but you can always override it as you see fit for your
system(s).

Security was a big reason for the mask (upstream stopped making
security fixes a long time ago), but regular maintenance has also
become a problem. Upstream stopped releasing regular fixes for php-
7.4.x as well, things like compatibility patches for newer openssl and
failing tests that can cause problems in Gentoo.

PHP takes a long time to stabilize, so we wind up with... right now,
there's three ebuilds in the tree for 7.4.x, and four ebuilds for
8.0.x, and four for 8.1.x. Somebody needs to backport things like
openssl compatibility to each of those for as long as they're in the
tree and not masked. And, the PHP project is empty:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:PHP

I'm still working on dev-lang/php (so it's not abandoned), but we just
don't have the kind of resources required to keep what are essentially
forks of old PHP versions alive. Barring a miracle, they'll be removed
as upstream kills off support.

Losing dependent packages like PHPUnit sucks because it's avoidable
(newer versions support newer PHP), but there's nobody keeping those
packages up-to-date now, so they break when the old versions of PHP are
masked or removed.