Re: Undeclared dependencies on menu
On Wed, 13 May 1998, Joey Hess wrote:
> Bob Hilliard wrote:
> > While testing the install disks v2.0.6, menu failed to install
> > due to unsatisfied dependencies. (This is the subject of another
> > message).
> >
> > Since menu was not configured, man-db, psmisc, bc, and dc could not
> > be configured because the postinst called update-menu, resulting in
> > the following error message:
> >
> > : update-menus: error in loading shared libraries
> > : libstdc++.so.2.7.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or
> > : directory
> >
> > None of these packages declare a dependency on menu. I believe
> > that policy should require that a package must declare a dependency on
> > any non-required utility used by the maintainer scripts, or the
> > scripts should be designed not to fail if such a utility is not
> > available.
> >
> > Should a bug be filed against these four packages? I am sure
> > there are many other packages that use update-menu in their postinsts
> > and do not declare a dependency on menu.
>
> Hundreds of packages use menu. The calls to menu are guarded by a test to
> see if menu is installed:
>
> if [ -x /usr/bin/update-menus ]; then
> /usr/bin/update-menus
> fi
>
> Anything using such a test does not have to depend on the command inside the
> if statement, as it will install just fine without it.
But it may not install 'just fine' if the command is in an unconfigured
state.
> You have run into a bug in menu (if it is insdeed missing some dependancy)
> or in dselect (if it's configuring things in the wrong order (likely)), but
> this is not aq bug in the hundred of packages that use menu.
The package that uses update-menus in the postinst without depending on
menu may be configured by dselect before menu, if both packages are
upgraded in the same run. I wonder what happens if you do that. I wouldn't
call it a bug in dselect, since it behaves like it's designed: if two
packages don't Depend: on each other, it doesn't matter in which order
they are configured.
Remco
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