Re: packages' config scripts creating files, chroots and buildds.

[Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>]

Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org> writes:

> This raises some questions:
>  - should config scripts be allowed to create/touch/modify files
>    (I think the answer here is no)

debconf-devel(7):

    The config script should not need to modify the filesystem at all.  It
    just examines the state of the system, and asks questions, and debconf
    stores the answers to be acted on later by the postinst script.
    Conversely, the postinst script should almost never use debconf to ask
    questions, but should instead act on the answers to questions asked by
    the config script.

Personally, my first instinct would be to call that an RC bug, but I may
be missing some case where config needs to modify the file system.

However, if config is being called outside of the chroot, it's also
updating the wrong debconf database, no?  So the rest of the problem does
also need to be fixed regardless of whether we fix the packages.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>