reassign 213357 dpkg retitle 213357 dpkg: sometimes doesn't unpack symlinks in package payload thanks On Mon, Sep 29, 2003 at 03:40:49PM -0400, Matthew J. Lockner wrote: > Package: xbase-clients > Version: 4.2.1-11 > Severity: normal > > (I'm not sure why reportbug no longer has higher severity levels, but this > is surely higher than normal...) I think that's a feature, not a bug. :) In any case, I think "man reportbug" will address your concern here. > Running testing, and going through the usual aptitude update/dist-upgrade > rigamaroll last night, dpkg started shouting at me about xbase-clients > failing its postinst (and thus preventing configuration of most of X). > > Basically, check_symlinks_and_bomb() in the postinst was bombing, for the > right reasons - but I don't know what caused the relevant symlinks to be > missing in the first place. The ones it complained about come right from > that same script: > > check_symlinks_and_bomb /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit \ > /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xsm \ > /etc/X11/xkb/compiled \ > /etc/X11/xkb/xkbcomp > > I was able to fix the breakage by purging and then reinstalling > xbase-clients via dpkg with --force-depends. All I can suggest is that it's a dpkg bug. The symbolic links are part of the package payload and dpkg should unpack them. I don't what I can do when it doesn't. branden@auric:~/pool/main/x/xfree86$ dpkg-deb -c xbase-clients_4.2.1-11_i386.deb | tail drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2003-08-29 07:29:52 ./usr/lib/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2003-08-29 07:29:52 ./usr/lib/menu/ -rw-r--r-- root/root 3946 2003-08-29 06:31:08 ./usr/lib/menu/xbase-clients drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2003-08-29 07:29:51 ./var/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2003-08-29 07:29:51 ./var/lib/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2003-08-29 07:29:51 ./var/lib/xkb/ lrwxrwxrwx root/root 0 2003-08-29 07:30:17 ./etc/X11/xkb/compiled -> /var/lib/xkb lrwxrwxrwx root/root 0 2003-08-29 07:30:17 ./etc/X11/xkb/xkbcomp -> /usr/X11R6/bin/xkbcomp lrwxrwxrwx root/root 0 2003-08-29 07:30:17 ./usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xsm -> /etc/X11/xsm lrwxrwxrwx root/root 0 2003-08-29 07:30:17 ./usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit -> /etc/X11/xinit This sort of bug has been seen before and appears to have been around forever, which is why I wrote those check_symlinks*() shell functions in the first place. It pops up really erratically, though, and no one who reports it ever seems to allow their system to stay broken long enough for me to convince a dpkg maintainer to let me nail him to a chair and track it down. -- G. Branden Robinson | Organized religion is a sham and a Debian GNU/Linux | crutch for weak-minded people who branden@debian.org | need strength in numbers. http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | -- Jesse Ventura
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