Installing packages with a diverted hardlink
Hi everyone! I am introducing myself to dpkg development and I am
starting by trying to solve a bug, Steve Langasek purposed me to solve
this old one http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=245322
Basically the problem here is that once you have diverted the file
(created with dpkg-divert /sbin/mkreiserfs in this particular case),
dpkg is unable to unpack the package. I've been taking a look at the
code at git://git.debian.org/git/dpkg/dpkg.git and I found that the
error happens in
"src/archives.c"
error creating hardlink
- its a case in a switch
case tar_filetype_hardlink
So I've thought a workaround for this:
> Dpkg could execute the command dpkg-divert --list | grep "thefile" and
> if the file has been diverted, install it in the diverted location.
> Problems? The only way that I know to save the output of that would be
> by means of >, dpkg-divert --list | grep "thefile" > afiletolookin.
> The main problem here would be that doing this for every single
> package would result in a slower installation and hence in a worse
> user experience, as creating a file , looking in it and deleting it is
> a more or less 'costly' process.
Unfortunately Steve told me that this is not feasible as dpkg should
never call dpkg-divert; dpkg already has complete information about
diverted files internally.
He told me to take a look at the data structures within the dpkg code
in order to find the information that dpkg is using currently to
unpack the packages to diverted
locations.
So, after writing this long mail my question is.. if I cannot use
dpkg-divert, where can I find in the code the information about what
is doing dpkg when unpacking the packages to diverted locations? To
solve this bug would be as simple as to look where is the diversion
pointing to and unpack the package there, but it is a bit difficult to
search for it in the code. So far I have been examining divertcmd.c,
archives.c, errors.c with no avail. Any clues?
Thank you guys!
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