Re: New ncurses packages...
> > LD_LIBRARY_PATH can't be used since setuid/setgid programs do not
> > honor it.
>
> Yes, but upgrading/installing is done as root anyway, and I think
> the problem came from /bin/sh and other tools depends on shared
> objects in the packages itself.
Yes, by and large, most things are run as root. However, it is quite
possible for the install scripts to run programs which are set[ui]id
to other users/groups.
> (If the nonhonor of LD_LIBRARY_PATH
> is the only thing, you could change ld-linux.so.1 to be able to go
> temporary into some debian_is_updating state. David, you have the
> source. -- Just kidding.)
No comment! :-)
> The other problem are running/starting programs during the (short)
> exchange time independend from the upgrade process, like cron, incomming
> telnets or other work on this machine. Now I am rather convinced we
> should force a single user mode during upgrading/installing essential
> parts of the system (ld.so, libc, shared object needed by bash, perl(?)).
As I said in an earlier message, I have not had time to refresh my
memory on some of the subleties of the problem. However, I will say
that the biggest problem area is the allowing of packages to remain in
an unpacked but unconfigured state (i.e. the old package has been
removed but the postinst for the new one has not yet been run) for an
indefinite period of time. Perhaps this feature should be removed for
essential packages. Another problem area is the ordering of calls to
the postrm and postinst scripts. I'm at a loss for a good example
right now, but some problems could be more easily solved if the postrm
for the old package were called after the postinst for the new
package.
David
--
David Engel Optical Data Systems, Inc.
david@ods.com 1101 E. Arapaho Road
(214) 234-6400 Richardson, TX 75081
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