Re: base-files does not create /usr/local directories

[Christian Schwarz <schwarz@monet.m.isar.de>]

On 19 Mar 1997 (some time ago), Guy Maor wrote:

> I suggested this policy in Jan, and everyone thought it was
> reasonable.
> 
> Christian - could you add it to your list of proposed policy changes?

I'm currently working on a new policy manual and want to incorporate this.
However, I have two comments:

1. Is it allowed to remove these directories in the postrm script? The
first section seams to allow it, but the second paragraph does not allow
it.

2. FSSTND, section 4.8 lists only a few directories. Currently, a few
packages install other directories, for example:
   perl: /usr/local/lib/site_perl/i386-linux
   tetex-base: /usr/local/lib/texmf/doc
IMHO, we should allow a few exceptions, as for Perl, TeX, etc.

> The only allowed changes to /usr/local are creating directories as
> placeholders on package installation and removing the directories, if
> empty, on package removal.  The postinst and prerm scripts must NOT
> fail if either of these operations fail.  For example, the emacs
> package will contain
>         mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/emacs/site-lisp || true
> in the postinst, and
>         rmdir /usr/local/lib/emacs/site-lisp && rmdir \
>           /usr/local/lib/emacs || true
> in the prerm.
> 
> You may not create any directories off of /usr/local besides those
> listed in FSSTND 4.8.  You may not remove any of the directories
> mentioned in 4.8, even if you created them.
> 
> If you do create a directory in /usr/local for local additions to a
> package, you must ensure that the package searches that directory
> before the equivalent directory in /usr.


Any comments are appreciated.


Thanks,

Chris

--                  Christian Schwarz
                   schwarz@monet.m.isar.de, schwarz@schwarz-online.com
                  schwarz@debian.org, schwarz@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de
                       
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