Bug#2524: problems with base package

[Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>]

Package: base
Version: 0.93.6-13 (from unstable tree)

The base package contains in the filesystem archive several files
which need to be handled more carefully:

Firstly, /etc/group, /etc/passwd, /etc/motd, /etc/host.conf and
/etc/adjtime (and perhaps others) are created and/or modified
(semi-)automatically by various system scripts but are also in the
package as dpkg-handled conffiles.  This will cause spurious conffiles
prompts when upgrading using dpkg; if the user answers `yes' to any of
them then an unmodified version of the file will be installed -
potentially disastrous.  I suggest that instead the base package
postinst should arrange to check these files for sanity and modify
them if appropriate.

Secondly, all the device files in /dev are in the archive.  This will
mean that any permissions, ownership, timestamp or name changes made
by the local admin will not be preserved.  I suggest that the base
package postinst should check for the existence of classes of devices
in or under /dev (by major/minor number instead of by name, in case of
any renaming which may have been done) and should then create any
devices it believes to be missing with some standard set of
permissions.

Also, the base package should IMO contain /usr/local/man/man[1-9],
/usr/local/sbin, /usr/local/doc, /usr/local/include and
/usr/local/info as empty directories.  This is to assist sysadmins,
especially new ones, who don't know where to put things.  The man,
sbin, include and info directories are particularly important as they
appear (or should appear) on various programs' search paths.

I'm concerned about the group write permissions on /floppy and /cdrom.
Are these required for usermount (I think not) ?  If not then they
shouldn't be present, because they allow members of the groups to
write things into the areas which will be covered up when the mount
takes place.

I see that /etc/rc.local exists.  When is this run ?

Finally, I don't understand what /var/local/usr is for, and I think
/home should not be created by the base package in case the sysadmin
wants their home directories somewhere else.

Ian.