function of --root parameter, perhaps introduce new parameter --configdir

Hi everyone,

I'm just writing a test for a script which uses dpkg --add-architecture. For running the test, i dont want to use root priviledges since i dont want to potentially ruin my host system.

I discovered that there is a --root parameter for this, which enables me to do this in a different directory than /. Running dpkg --root=<my test directory> --add-architecture runs also without root and adds a entry in <my test directory>/var/lib/dpkg/arch as expected.

But now the problem. Since --root does not shift the configuration directory from /etc/dpkg to <my test directory>/etc/dpkg always my host dpkg configuration is used. But since my host dpkg configuration contains hooks which are run after --add-architecture which require root I see always errors while running dpkg --root as a non-root user. Further I did not find a possibility (which does not require root) to disable the running of the hooks (like a command line parameter to dpkg) or switching the configuration directory.

I thought about following solutions of this problem:

Make --root also change configuration directory to <rootdir>/etc/dpkg.

PRO: Makes dpkg --root easier to use, make it as non-root independent of the host dpkg configuration
CON: Changes the semantics of --root, might break scripts

Add a --configdir Option to switch configdir to <rootdir>/etc/dpkg.

PRO: does not change existing options
CON: {inst, admin}dir are switched with --root but not --configdir

Combine 1 & 2: Make --root also change configuration directory to <rootdir>/etc/dpkg, and add a --configdir Option to switch configdir to<rootdir>/etc/dpkg

PRO: {inst, admin,config}dir are switched with --root which would be more consistent and --configdir matches the pattern of the {inst, admin}dir
CON: Changes the semantics of --root, might break scripts

Add an option to skip the hooks

PRO: Should break nothing since its added on top, should be simple to implement
CON: Solves the problem only half since the rest of the host dpkg configuration is still used

What do you think about this problem? Or have i just missed something and its already possible with a command line parameter i didn't found. Would be also ok for me 😉.

Since i got experience in C i can help/do the proposed implementations.

Greetings,

André

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