Re: Bug#336732: /lib/modules/*/build symlink should be ignored when checking if kernel is installed
* Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> [2005-11-05 23:51]:
> Why should a symlink be ignored? What other stuff would people
> want to have ignored if we start on a slippery slope like this?
> nividia-source, vmware, and scads of others would like to dump stuff
> in /lib/modules, and the book keeping involved in keeping track of
> stuff in the /lib/modules/ which is OK to ignore would be
> massive.
> The presence of that link is a bug, and should be fixed.
Can you explain why it is a bug? I think upstream puts header files
in /lib/modules/<foo>/build/ too, so it's not as if this is a Debian
specific thing. (Correct me if I'm wrong; also CCing -kernel).
Given that the warning by kernel-package talks about modules, why
don't you do a 'find' and look for .o and .ko files?
> kernel-package itself does not create that link, and the entity
> responsible for that link should know better.
AFAIK many external build process (for kernel modules) except
/lib/modules/<foo>/build, so it's hardly a matter about "knowing
better" on the side of the kernel-headers package. Unless you get
upstream to change, it's quite likely that people will have a build
symlink in their modules dir and the kernel-build message will
therefore be useless and even misleading. kernel-headers is also
different to your other examples (e.g. nividia-source) in that it
doesn't put _modules_ there. So given that this is a well-known
exception, I don't see why it would be so hard or troublesome to
ignore /lib/modules/<foo>/build when checking for modules dir. It's
like one line of Perl code - and it will reduce one false positive.
> There is a workaround for you, of course, until the bug is
> fixed in the proper place:
I'm fairly sure the "proper place" is kernel-package and not
kernel-headers, as outlined above.
> ,----[ Manual page kernel-img.conf(5) ]
> | silent_modules
> | This option has been put in for the people who are vastly irri-
> | tated on being warned about preexisting modules directory
> | /lib/modules/$version That directory may belong to an old or
> | defunct kernel-image-$version package, in which case problems
...
And even if we continue to disagree, this bug report should be
reopened to become a wishlist to mention kernel-headers in this
description.
--
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/
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