[Help] How to fix a buggy prerm script in sarge? (was: Bug#338638: tetex-base: dies when /usr/local/ read-only)

[Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>]

tags 338638 help
thanks

Hi all,

we just received a bug report that is caused by a buggy prerm script
in the package in sarge (it fails because it doesn't handle read-only
/usr/local properly).  Is there any way to fix this, except documenting
it in the release notes?  

And on a related thought, if the bug was in the postrm script, would it
be acceptable that the preinst script of the new version edits
/var/lib/dpkg/info/tetex-base.postrm? 

Regards, Frank

P.S. Andrew, are you able to find a workaround yourself, or do you need
help? 

Andrew Stribblehill <ads@debian.org> wrote:

> Package: tetex-base
> Version: 2.0.2c-8
> Severity: serious
> Justification: Policy 9.1.2
>
> Trying to upgrade from 20.2c-8 to 3.0.10:
>
> dpkg: tetex-base: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you request:
>  tetex-bin depends on tetex-base.
> (Reading database ... 98267 files and directories currently installed.)
> Removing tetex-base ...
> rm: cannot remove `/usr/local/share/texmf/ls-R': Read-only file system
> dpkg: error processing tetex-base (--remove):
>  subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
> Errors were encountered while processing:
>  tetex-base

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster
Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer