Bug#118080: Will warn for every recursive link

[Bill Allombert <allomber@math.u-bordeaux.fr>]

On Mon, Feb 09, 2004 at 05:42:31PM +0100, Jeroen van Wolffelaar wrote:
> I tend to chose to adapt the check to disallow any symlink that is
> recursive to itself (checking for indirect recursion is harder, in the
> case of inter-package recursion even impossible).
> 
> Very few packages will actually need it, and if they do, they should
> install an override IMHO.

I am not in agreement here.  The lintian message refer to 

Policy 10.5. Symbolic links
     
     In general, symbolic links within a top-level directory should be
     relative, and symbolic links pointing from one top-level directory
     into another should be absolute.  (A top-level directory is a
     sub-directory of the root directory `/'.)

     In addition, symbolic links should be specified as short as possible,
     i.e., link targets like `foo/../bar' are deprecated.

Policy mandate situation where links need to be relative, and that 
they need to be as short as possible. This lead to situation when ..
is the only choice that is policy compliant.  This warning may induce
people to switch to an absolute link, violating this policy.

If you insist to warn on loops, make a separate lintian warning with a
different messages, and make it a W: not a E: since policy does not
forbid links loops.

As for the need for the link in the first place, it is usually an
upstream issue or a way to get around an upstream issue with FHS
compliance, so is not a packaging error most of the time.

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.