Re: #4009: /bin/edit causes error after ae removed (fwd)
On Wed, 4 Feb 1998, Christian Schwarz wrote:
>
> [I reply to the public. Hope you don't mind.]
>
> On Tue, 3 Feb 1998, Santiago Vila wrote:
>
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >
> > Could you please enlighten me?
> >
> > There was a bug report saying:
> >
> > From: Daniel Quinlan <quinlan@charcoal.eg.bucknell.edu>
> > To: submit@bugs.debian.org
> > Subject: #4009: /bin/edit causes error after ae removed
> >
> > Package: base
> > Version: 1.1.0-14
> >
> > After forcing the removal of ae, /bin/edit was still installed, but
> > didn't call a suitable replacement editor such as vi.
> >
> > And Current /bin/edit is like this:
> >
> > #!/bin/sh
> > no_exit_on_failed_exec=
> > exec ${VISUAL:-${EDITOR:-ae}} "$@"
> > exec vi "$@"
> > exec emacs "$@"
> > echo "Couldn't find an editor!" 1>&2
> > echo "Please set the \$VISUAL environment variable to your desired
> > editor." 1>&2echo "If your haven't done so, please install one of the
> > editor packages." 1>&2
> > exit 1
> >
> > How should it be changed with respect to the new policy?
> > Now we have an "editor". Do we need a /bin/edit at all?
>
> Well, I didn't actually know that we had a /bin/edit :-)
This script is provided by the base-files package. With the new editor
policy this script should no longer be necessary.
>
> Does someone remember what this script was for? (The advantage over
> /usr/bin/editor is that /bin/edit is in /bin, so it's available even if
> /usr isn't mounted. Since "ae" is also in /bin, /bin/edit should always
> work.)
>
The new policy has editor in /usr/bin. There have been several reports
(related to slang) that suggest that this will not work for "single user
mode" repairs.
Although this isn't what this report is about, it may be a good idea to
move /usr/bin/editor to /bin/editor so that rescue editing is possible in
single user mode, or before /user is mounted.
> It would be good if someone could comment on this.
>
With respect to the difficulty resulting from removing ae, there was a
discussion about a year and a half ago about whether ae should continue to
be "essential". It was decided that, although this would allow the sys
admin to remove the only editor on the system, leaving it "crippled" that
this was desirable for those who don't want ae on their systems.
Bottom line: if you remove all of the editors on your system, you will not
be able to use /usr/edit, or any other "pointer" to a "default" editor.
Luck,
Dwarf
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