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Re: native vs emulated configuration



On Sat, 9 Jul 2011 14:32:54 +0200
Johannes Schauer <j.schauer@email.de> wrote:

> On Sat, Jul 09, 2011 at 12:27:10PM +0100, Neil Williams wrote:
> > It is also worth noting exactly which packages are involved in these
> > problems because very few should actually end up making symlinks which
> > could escape the top level directories like /usr, /bin, /lib or /etc.
> 
> are those really problems? should there be no absolute symlinks created
> by package configuration scripts? why? I dont understand why it should
> be a problem if a package, during configuration creates non-relative
> symlinks?

It's causing a problem for your situation, it is worth investigating.
Off the cuff, I can't think of a reason why absolute symlinks should be
necessary for maintainer scripts and that most which do exist are
probably simply there to make the job of the maintainer easier.

If a situation exists which causes problems for some and which is only
a mere convenience for those using it with no good technical reason to
retain the problematic behaviour, then it should be fixed.

Get the data and then find out what is actually happening. Maintainers
aren't going to know that there is even a possibility of a problem
until someone says something and provides the data. Identify the
packages to blame for these symlinks and work from that list.

> > However, be absolutely clear and precise when discussing this - if you
> > think my reaction was aggressive, you will get roasted alive by some
> > of the people on -devel if you describe things the way you've done in
> > previous threads and in this one so far.
> 
> Then how can you possibly expect I would be the right person for the
> job? :D I'm just a newbie and still have to learn a lot.

It's your itch, you need to scratch it. I've no interest in fixing this
because it doesn't affect me - I'm happy doing configuration natively.

Don't expect this to magically disappear overnight, you'll need to work
around it for a while but why leave it at that? The hacks you'll need
now will become a real PITA if this issue is left to rot. OTOH if there
are good technical reasons then those who have such reasons should be
able to help you write a decent solution instead of a hack which will
just break in the future.

How do you expect that people who are new to all this actually learn
and don't stay as newbies forever?

"newbie" is a nice little rut if you want to stay in it but most former
newbies find such people tiresome. You've stated you've got lots to
learn, that's a good step. Working out what is behind this issue will
be another good step. We're all newbies at something - what matters is
that people continue learning.

-- 


Neil Williams
=============
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

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