Re: fistfight between libc6-dev and joystick

[Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>]

On Fri, 10 Jul 1998, Richard Braakman wrote:

> Dale Scheetz wrote:
> 
> > I still don't understand why dpkg wipes the /usr/include/linux directory
> > before it loads the files from libc6-dev. If it already exists and has
> > non-conflicting files, shouldn't they be left alone when dpkg installs the
> > other files?
> 
> libc6-dev does it in its preinst:
> 
> 
> #!/bin/sh
> 
> set -e
> 
> # Remove old directories and symlinks, if they exist
> rm -rf /usr/include/asm
> rm -rf /usr/include/linux
> rm -rf /usr/include/scsi
> 
> 
> This is probably a legacy of the changed-and-changed-again
> /usr/include/linux handling.  Be careful that you don't break upgrades
> from older versions if you touch this.  Perhaps Manoj can give
> suggestions?  He's dealt in depth with this issue before.
> 
You are, of course, correct on all counts. This was done when they were
links. Now that it is part of the package, I don't have to do this.

To satisfy old package upgrades it should be sufficient to only remove
them if they are symbolic links. This will stop libc6-dev from eating the
contents. Note, however that this behavior must have existed for all early
packages, as, even with linux being a link to the headers, the include
file for joystick will go away each time the header dependency changed.

The problem is really that joystick is a "separate" module, not delivered
with the linux source code. There are other examples. It was my
supposition that this is what the /usr/include/linux/modules directory was
created for.

I just realized a problem with not "cleaning out" the linux path, or, for
that matter, any of the include paths. Additions to the files of "special"
include files will not get removed, will they? Should they?

Thanks,

Dwarf
--
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