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Re: testing whether package is removed or purged with -x, not -f



On Thu, Jul 06, 2000 at 11:51:27AM -0400, Christopher W. Curtis wrote:
> > > This cannot be proven - I didn't want it to run, so I chmod -x it.  It
> > > seemed like a logical thing to do.  I didn't want to delete it because I
> > > may have wanted it again later, and I didn't want to rename it because
> > > it would leave cruft in /sbin.
> > 
> > This would usually be handled by splitting out portmap daemon and its init.d
> > script into its own package... but I doubt that it is wise to do that.
> 
> There's really no reason why it wouldn't be wise.
[explanation skipped]

While what you say may be all true, splitting older packages is often not a
desired thing to do, since it always requires a certain amount of
intervention in the packaging system by the user (admin), which often leads
to people being in total dismay because "Debian removed my old app without
telling me".

> > > I asked only that it check -x, and not -f, thereby printing no error
> > > whatsoever.  The error printed is not the script saying something is wrong
> > > - it is bash saying the script is trying to do something wrong.
> > 
> > So file a (severity wishlist) bug against the package containing the script,
> > there's little point in mailing -devel about it.
> 
> I didn't realize that mailing -devel would be of little use.  I didn't
> want to file a dozen little bug reports.  I just wanted to send a short
> message to all developers, saying, hey, test -x makes more sense than
> test -f, then hope that developers would agree, and make that change the
> next time the package needs to be updated.

As I said in the previous mail, you probably haven't reached those who make
those changes... filing bugs is easy, you just mail submit@bugs.debian.org
with this at the top of message body:

Package: foobar
Severity: wishlist

...followed by the explanation of the problem. You could even use the nice
bug or reportbug commands that make this even easier. BTW if there's more
than, say, 10 of these similar reports, you send it to
maintonly@bugs.debian.org instead.

-- 
Digital Electronic Being Intended for Assassination and Nullification



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