http://www.debian.org/Bugs/db/36/36977.html
>
> Debian Bug report logs - #36977
> dpkg: install-info has name-conflict with GNU texinfo program install-info
>
> Package: dpkg; Severity: wishlist; Reported by: <swift@alum.mit.edu>; merged with #9771, #32550,
> #51450, #60028; dated Fri, 30 Apr 1999 23:18:01 GMT; Maintainer for dpkg is Wichert Akkerman
> <wakkerma@debian.org>.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Merged 9771 32550 36977 51450 60028. Request was from Josip Rodin <joy@cibalia.gkvk.hr> to
> control@bugs.debian.org. Full text available.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Merged 9771 32550 36977 51450. Request was from Josip Rodin <jrodin@public.srce.hr> to
> control@bugs.debian.org. Full text available.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Severity set to `wishlist'. Request was from Josip Rodin <joy@cibalia.gkvk.hr> to
> control@bugs.debian.org. Full text available.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>Message received at 36977-submitter@bugs.debian.org:
>
>Received: (at 36977-submitter) by bugs.debian.org; 16 Oct 1999 16:19:00 +0000
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> by master.debian.org with SMTP; 16 Oct 1999 16:18:58 -0000
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> id 11cWXn-00052f-00; Sat, 16 Oct 1999 18:18:55 +0200
>Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1999 18:18:55 +0200
>From: Josip Rodin <joy@cibalia.gkvk.hr>
>To: 9771@bugs.debian.org, 9771-submitter@bugs.debian.org,
> 32550@bugs.debian.org, 32550-submitter@bugs.debian.org,
> 36977@bugs.debian.org, 36977-submitter@bugs.debian.org
>Subject: This is no longer release critical. EOD.
>Message-ID: <19991016181854.C18855@cibalia.gkvk.hr>
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>User-Agent: Mutt/1.0pre2i
>
>severity 9771 wishlist
>thanks
>
>Hi people,
>
>These bugs aren't release critical for Debian anymore. This is from
>dpkg's changelog:
>
>dpkg (1.4.1.5) unstable; urgency=low
>
> * Add Zack Weinberg's install-info patch for GNU install-info
> compatibility (closes:Bug#28965).
>
>So our install-info is now compatible with GNU install-info (in one
>direction). It is not Debian's fault if someone has GNU's install-info in
>$PATH before /usr/sbin/install-info - don't mess with the packaging system,
>you'll just get in trouble.
>
>Anyway, these conflicts don't happen quite so often. Debian's texinfo
>package doesn't install its (GNU's) install-info binary, so the bug won't
>happen with pure Debian installations.
>
>There is still one option - rename dpkg's install-info to something
>else, but there's too little gain and too much breakage of our packages
>included in that. I wouldn't recommend it, but can ackgnowledge it
>as a valid wish/request. Thus, I'm changing the severity of these
>bug reports to 'wishlist'.
>
>--
>enJoy -*/\*- don't even try to pronounce my first name
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Message sent on to <swift@alum.mit.edu>:
> Bug#36977. Full text available.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>Message received at 36977@bugs.debian.org:
>
>Received: (at 36977) by bugs.debian.org; 16 Oct 1999 16:19:00 +0000
>Received: (qmail 19498 invoked from network); 16 Oct 1999 16:18:58 -0000
>Received: from cibalia.gkvk.hr (mail@161.53.211.3)
> by master.debian.org with SMTP; 16 Oct 1999 16:18:58 -0000
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> id 11cWXn-00052f-00; Sat, 16 Oct 1999 18:18:55 +0200
>Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1999 18:18:55 +0200
>From: Josip Rodin <joy@cibalia.gkvk.hr>
>To: 9771@bugs.debian.org, 9771-submitter@bugs.debian.org,
> 32550@bugs.debian.org, 32550-submitter@bugs.debian.org,
> 36977@bugs.debian.org, 36977-submitter@bugs.debian.org
>Subject: This is no longer release critical. EOD.
>Message-ID: <19991016181854.C18855@cibalia.gkvk.hr>
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>User-Agent: Mutt/1.0pre2i
>
>severity 9771 wishlist
>thanks
>
>Hi people,
>
>These bugs aren't release critical for Debian anymore. This is from
>dpkg's changelog:
>
>dpkg (1.4.1.5) unstable; urgency=low
>
> * Add Zack Weinberg's install-info patch for GNU install-info
> compatibility (closes:Bug#28965).
>
>So our install-info is now compatible with GNU install-info (in one
>direction). It is not Debian's fault if someone has GNU's install-info in
>$PATH before /usr/sbin/install-info - don't mess with the packaging system,
>you'll just get in trouble.
>
>Anyway, these conflicts don't happen quite so often. Debian's texinfo
>package doesn't install its (GNU's) install-info binary, so the bug won't
>happen with pure Debian installations.
>
>There is still one option - rename dpkg's install-info to something
>else, but there's too little gain and too much breakage of our packages
>included in that. I wouldn't recommend it, but can ackgnowledge it
>as a valid wish/request. Thus, I'm changing the severity of these
>bug reports to 'wishlist'.
>
>--
>enJoy -*/\*- don't even try to pronounce my first name
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Acknowledgement sent to Josip Rodin <joy@cibalia.gkvk.hr>:
> Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Ian Jackson and others
> <dpkg-maint@chiark.greenend.org.uk>. Full text available.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Ian Jackson and others
> <dpkg-maint@chiark.greenend.org.uk>:
> Bug#36977; Package dpkg. Full text available.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Merged 9771 32550 36977. Request was from Matthew Swift <swift@alum.mit.edu> to
> control@bugs.debian.org. Full text available.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>Message received at submit@bugs.debian.org:
>
>Received: (at submit) by bugs.debian.org; 30 Apr 1999 23:15:13 +0000
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> id 10dMUd-0005MP-00; Fri, 30 Apr 1999 19:14:52 -0400
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> by aleph.swift.xxx (8.9.3/8.9.3/Debian/GNU) id TAA07595;
> Fri, 30 Apr 1999 19:14:49 -0400
>Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 19:14:49 -0400
>Message-Id: <199904302314.TAA07595@aleph.swift.xxx>
>From: <swift@alum.mit.edu>
>Subject: dpkg: install-info has name-conflict with GNU texinfo program install-info
>To: submit@bugs.debian.org
>X-Mailer: bug 3.1.7
>
>Package: dpkg
>Version: 1.4.0.34
>Severity: grave
>
>the dpkg package includes a perl script /usr/sbin/install-info that is used
>(at least) by many package's .prerm or .postinstall etc. scripts.
>
>The GNU texinfo suite also contains a C program called install-info. they have
>similar functions, but not identical. in particular, recent versions of both
>programs do not accept the same argument syntax.
>
>Users may have good reason to have the GNU install-info on their system and in
>their $PATH. For example, teTeX (the std distribution, not the Debian
>packages) includes the program. (I do a lot of work with TeX, and I prefer to
>use my own teTeX installation rather than Debian's because this allows me
>better flexibility for experimenting with the TeX installation or with multiple
>TeX installations.)
>
>If the .prerm etc. scripts call the GNU program because it is earlier in the
>$PATH, they break. Then all packages whose scripts call install-info cannot be
>either installed or uninstalled without some manual fixing quite inobvious to
>the naive user. There are numerous reports of this problem on debian.user and
>at least one bug report (mine). (I'll try to combine this bug report with any
>others I see.)
>
>My thoughts on a resolution:
>
>As a workaround, users can "type install-info" and if they don't get
>/usr/sbin/install-info, they can rearrange their PATH or
>
>I don't think that it's unreasonable to have the GNU version's directory in the
>$PATH before /usr/sbin, so I don't think dpkg should count on a pathless
>invocation of install-info resolving to /usr/sbin/install-info. I don't think
>adding full paths to the .prerm etc scripts will solve all the problems with
>having two different executables with the same name on the same system. My
>opinion is that Debian's install-info had better change its name or be made to
>be a substitute for the GNU program (all versions? some versions? seems more
>trouble than it's worth.)
>
>I think it will be worthwhile for myself to write a repair script which would
>(help) restore /usr/info and /usr/info/dir to the correct state after
>commenting out many "install-info" lines in the .prerm etc. scripts in order to
>get packages installed/deinstalled. If I write a useful script, I will send it
>as a followup to this report and post it on debian.user.
>
>
>
>-- System Information
>Debian Release: 2.1
>Kernel Version: Linux aleph 2.0.36 #1 Fri Jan 15 18:12:05 EST 1999 i586 unknown
>
>Versions of the packages dpkg depends on:
>ii libc6 2.1.1-1 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and timezone
>ii libncurses4 4.2-3 Shared libraries for terminal handling
>pi libstdc++2.9 2.91.60-5 The GNU stdc++ library (egcs version)
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Acknowledgement sent to <swift@alum.mit.edu>:
> New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to Ian Jackson and others
> <dpkg-maint@chiark.greenend.org.uk>. Full text available.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Report forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Ian Jackson and others
> <dpkg-maint@chiark.greenend.org.uk>:
> Bug#36977; Package dpkg. Full text available.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>
> Darren Benham / owner@bugs.debian.org. Last modifed: 21:03:02 GMT Fri 10 Mar (timestamp page
> available).
> Debian bug tracking system
> copyright 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997 nCipher Corporation LTD, 1994-7 Ian Jackson, 1995 Steven
> Brenner.
> Available under the GPL.
I was badly bitten by this bug after trying to install the source
version of TeteX. I was left with the other version of install-info in
/usr/bin and then no deb package would install. I was tearing my hair
out and was on the verge of reinstalling Debian from scratch; I only
discovered what had happened at the last minute.
I think that at the least there should be a warning about this
somewhere, since it's by no means obvious to the uninitiated.
Anthony Campbell
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