Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.
On behalf of the Ubuntu SRU team, please consider this request approved in principle. Specifically, our policy already allows for youtube-dl updates in stable releases as required in order to keep it working. See "Updates that need to be applied to Ubuntu packages to adjust to changes in the environment, server protocols, web services, and similar, i. e. where the current version just ceases to work." from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#High-impact_bugs. However, updating the package requires someone to actually volunteer the fix, and perform the necessary QA. Until that happens, you cannot expect the package to get updated. It's worth noting that a youtube-dl snap exists and appears up-to-date. Snaps work far better for this kind of case and were, in part, designed to fix exactly this kind of update problem. If you prefer not to use the snap then that's your choice. But I hope this explains why you're less likely to find volunteers to fix this issue the hard way when the problem is already not an issue the easy way. If you are able to volunteer, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates to understand what you need to do, and specifically the steps at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Procedure. I'm also going to rename this bug. "Always backport newer versions" is an impossible bug to fix because the bug can never be marked resolved, and is thus not a helpful thing to track. I'm going to change it to a particular version so that the bug can actually have a specific goal. If/when the goalpost moves, the bug title can be updated if the previous goal is unlikely to be achieved. If the goal is achieved then we'll mark it Fix Released, and the next time an update is required, please use a new bug to track that. To start, I'm going to take the statement from @asciiwolf "The latest manually installed youtube-dl package from hirsute works fine" and assume that 2021.04.07-0ubuntu1 and above still works, but 2020.03.24-1 and lower does not work. So this bug, for now, can track a backport of 2021.04.07 or higher to Focal and Bionic, and can be marked Fix Released for Hirsute and the current Ubuntu development release. Reminder: this bug will not get fixed until somebody volunteers to do the work. The workaround is to use the youtube-dl snap which appears up- to-date. ** Description changed: + [Triage Notes] + + This request is approved but is waiting for a volunteer to work on it. + + I'm also going to rename this bug. "Always backport newer versions" is + an impossible bug to fix because the bug can never be marked resolved, + and is thus not a helpful thing to track. I'm going to change it to a + particular version so that the bug can actually have a specific goal. + If/when the goalpost moves, the bug title can be updated if the previous + goal is unlikely to be achieved. If the goal is achieved then we'll mark + it Fix Released, and the next time an update is required, please use a + new bug to track that. + + To start, I'm going to take the statement from @asciiwolf "The latest + manually installed youtube-dl package from hirsute works fine" and + assume that 2021.04.07-0ubuntu1 and above still works, but 2020.03.24-1 + and lower does not work. So this bug, for now, can track a backport of + 2021.04.07 or higher to Focal and Bionic, and can be marked Fix Released + for Hirsute and the current Ubuntu development release. + + [Original Description] + This package always breaks and should always be backported from the development release to the current LTS releases because the target web services are always evolving. The rationale for the SRU: 1) The package is a small command-line program 2) Regressions don't make sense since the package becomes useless anyway 3) Packaging burden is small since the package starts from Debian unstable then Ubuntu development release ** Also affects: youtube-dl (Ubuntu Focal) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Also affects: youtube-dl (Ubuntu Bionic) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Also affects: youtube-dl (Ubuntu Hirsute) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Changed in: youtube-dl (Ubuntu) Status: Confirmed => Fix Released ** Changed in: youtube-dl (Ubuntu Hirsute) Status: New => Fix Released ** Summary changed: - [SRU] Always backport newer versions + [SRU] Update to 2021.04.07 or higher -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1529647 Title: [SRU] Update to 2021.04.07 or higher To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts/+bug/1529647/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
