Bug#915830: busybox: cp: failed to access '/var/tmp/mkinitramfs_h8da2B//usr/bin/busybox': Too many levels of symbolic links

[Axel Beckert <abe@debian.org>]

Hi Ben,

Ben Hutchings wrote:
> > /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:
> > update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.19.0-4-686-pae
> > cp: failed to access '/var/tmp/mkinitramfs_URATxd//usr/bin/touch': Too many levels of symbolic links
> > E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/fsprotect failed with return 1.
[...]
> The copy_file function applies two
> transformations to the target filename:
> 
> 1. If it matches /bin/*, /lib*, or /sbin/*, add /usr to the beginning
>    since the initramfs is usrmerged.
> 2. If it refers a directory, add the basename of the source filename.
> 
> These need to be done in the opposite order, to handle a target
> filename of "/bin" correctly.

Thanks for the prompt analysis.

> This is a bug in initramfs-tools.

Ok. Since I can't see any such bug report against initramfs-tools, I
will file one after this mail.

> But this is a very different problem from the one Chris Lamb
> reported.

I disagree that it is _very_ different since it has very similar
symptoms. The cause might be very differnt, though, indeed.

		Regards, Axel
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