Re: Install-info transition, review time
On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 12:05:43PM +0100, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> the dpkg team and the texinfo maintainer have laid out a plan to
> get rid of dpkg /usr/sbin/install-info and start relying on
> GNU's install-info when needed. This will involve some work to
> transition properly. We have described our plan here:
> http://wiki.debian.org/Transitions/DpkgToGnuInstallInfo
It would be nice if the details were posted to the mailing list instead of
referencing a wiki.
* dpkg ships a new /usr/sbin/install-info that will call
/usr/bin/install-info with the same arguments. It also warns the user if
called with an absolute path. Dpkg also contains Breaks against old
versions of all info-browsers that do not depend on install-info.
I don't like the sound of this. Why is it necessary to provide
/usr/sbin/install-info? I assume this is out of concern that some packages
will be calling install-info with an explicit path, but that's been contrary
to Policy for years ("Programs called from maintainer scripts should not
normally have a path prepended to them", Policy 6.1) and I don't see any
evidence looking at my local systems that install-info is being used
incorrectly.
I don't think there should be an extra install-info in the path without a
clearer rationale.
Also, is the new dpkg going to Pre-Depend: on this new install-info package?
If not, what does this /usr/sbin/install-info wrapper script do when called
and /usr/bin/install-info is absent? Packages currently call install-info
from their maintainer scripts unconditionally, because it's provided by an
Essential package.
> Please review and raise any suggestions if you have any. There
> has been some extensive discussion on -dpkg already that you can read
> to understand the choices made:
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-dpkg/2009/03/msg00019.html
Given that install-info is codified in Policy, I think this plan needs to be
vetted via the policy process and include specific changes to the language
in Policy, prior to moving forward on implementation.
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/
slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
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