Re: dash: fails to install when /usr/share/man doesn't exist

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

severity 615556 important
quit

Hi,

Lorenzo wrote:

> Unpacking dash (from .../dash_0.5.5.1-7.4em1_i386.deb) ...
> Adding 'diversion of /bin/sh to /bin/sh.distrib by dash'
> ln: creating symbolic link `/usr/share/man/man1/sh.1.gz.tmp': No such file or
> directory
[...]
> The error is due to the fact that the chroot where the package is being
> installed doesn't contain /usr/share/man (it is a EmDebian chroot).

I don't believe policy requires the unmodified maintainer scripts to
work in such a hostile environment (the /usr/share/man/man1 directory
is part of a number of essential packages), though I could easily be
wrong.

But putting that aside, how are packages supposed to deal with this?
Is it only /usr/share/man that might be stripped away or are there
other directories to worry about?  If a directory is missing, is it
safe to assume nothing should be installed there, or should some
directories be silently created when needed?

Does emdebian have a way to provide emdebian-specific changes to
maintainer scripts?  Are stock packages supposed to work in an
emdebian environment?

It all seems murky.  Hints welcome.

Regards,
Jonathan