Re: Making the Info system FHS-compliant

[Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>]

On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, Santiago Vila wrote:

> How to make the Debian info system FHS-compliant.
> ================================================
> [...]
> 
> 2. After the new base-files package which does not create an index
> file when there is one already at /usr/share/info has been installed
> in potato, we modify dpkg in two ways:
> 
> a) Its postinst moves /usr/info/dir to /usr/share/info/dir.
> b) At the same time, its install-info script is modified so that
> it reads $infodir='/usr/share/info';
> 
> For the unlikely case that the user installs this dpkg and *reinstall*
> the base-files package in slink, we make this dpkg to depend on the
> previous base-files package by using a ">=".

I have realized there may be a subtle problem with this:

It may happen that the user installs dpkg and a package `foo' which uses
install-info on the same dpkg run. The following could happen:

1. package foo is unpacked
2. dpkg is unpacked (containing the new install-info).
3. package foo is configured
4. dpkg is configured

When package foo is configured, the new install-info will try to use
/usr/share/info/dir, which does not yet exist because dpkg's postinst
has not been executed yet.

If it fails, good: package foo will be configured later, dpkg will then be
configured, `dir' will be moved from /usr/info to /usr/share info, and
next time configuration of `foo' will not fail.

If it does not fail, there is a problem. Possible solution: Do the move
in install-info itself, not in the dpkg.postinst.


Still awaiting for Ian's opinion as dpkg maintainer about this...

Thanks.

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