Re: Undeclared dependencies on menu

[Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>]

Bob Hilliard wrote:
>      While testing the install disks v2.0.6, menu failed to install
> due to unsatisfied dependencies.  (This is the subject of another
> message). 
> 
>      Since menu was not configured, man-db, psmisc, bc, and dc could not
> be configured because the postinst called update-menu, resulting in
> the following error message:
> 
> : update-menus: error in loading shared libraries
> : libstdc++.so.2.7.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or
> : directory
> 
>      None of these packages declare a dependency on menu.  I believe
> that policy should require that a package must declare a dependency on
> any non-required utility used by the maintainer scripts, or the
> scripts should be designed not to fail if such a utility is not
> available.  
> 
>      Should a bug be filed against these four packages?  I am sure
> there are many other packages that use update-menu in their postinsts
> and do not declare a dependency on menu.

Hundreds of packages use menu. The calls to menu are guarded by a test to
see if menu is installed:

if [ -x /usr/bin/update-menus ]; then
	/usr/bin/update-menus
fi

Anything using such a test does not have to depend on the command inside the
if statement, as it will install just fine without it.

You have run into a bug in menu (if it is insdeed missing some dependancy)
or in dselect (if it's configuring things in the wrong order (likely)), but
this is not aq bug in the hundred of packages that use menu.

-- 
see shy jo


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