Bug#284469: "cp -a" fails on some filesystems, causing postin st failure

[frank@kuesterei.ch (Frank Küster)]

Chad Miller <Chad.Miller@veritas.com> wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Frank Küster [mailto:frank@debian.org]
>> Sent: Monday, 06 December, 2004 12:31
>> To: Chad Miller
>>
>> This is not a bug in tetex-bin. Every decent filesystem should be able
>> to set timestamps. This is a bug in the kernel - most 
>> probably you have
>> installed from somebody's (Eduard Bloch's?) inofficial install images
>> with xfs support, and these images used a kernel version with 
>> buggy ACL
>> implementation in XFS.
>
> Indeed, I am not using a Debian kernel.  I am stuck within a "virtual
> server" on a huge physical server, over which I've added Debian's userspace.
> So your position is that having a filesystem in which I can set timestamps
> should be a prerequisite for installing (not "using", note) tetex?

Honestly, maintainer scripts cannot cater for every thinkable buggy
filesystem or kernel.  The "feature" of setting timestamps is part of the
POSIX specification:

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/xcu_chap01.html#tag_01_07_01

and cp -p is, too:

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/cp.html

If I cannot rely on POSIX being followed, I cannot write maintainer
scripts at all.

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster
Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer