Bug#392604: mldonkey-server: mldonkey_server requires that HOME is set but claims the contrary

[Géraud Meyer <geraud_meyer@hotmail.com>]

Package: mldonkey-server
Version: 2.8.1-1
Severity: normal
Tags: patch

mldonkey_server cannot run if the HOME variable is unset, whether the
--chdir option is used or not:
    # mldonkey_server
    Set niceness of the process: 0
    Set uid/gid of the process (0, 0)
    Set umask of the process: 18
    Chdir to home dir: /root
    Writing PID (5432) to pidfile: /root/.mldonkey/mldonkey.pid
    Launching MLnet process
    2006/10/12 09:01:35 [cO] Starting MLDonkey 2.8.1 ...
    2006/10/12 09:01:35 [cO] Language EN, locale UTF-8, ulimit for open
files 1024
    2006/10/12 09:01:35 [cO] MLDonkey is working in .
    2006/10/12 09:01:35 Loading language resource
/root/.mldonkey/mlnet_strings.en_US.UTF-8
    2006/10/12 09:01:35 [cO] loaded language resource file
    2006/10/12 09:01:35 [DNS] Resolving [maillekeul] ...
    2006/10/12 09:01:35 [DNS] Resolving [www.mldonkey.net] ...
    2006/10/12 09:01:35 [cO] Logging in ./mlnet.log
    2006/10/12 09:01:35 [dMain] Core started
    Terminate process
    Stopping processes PID ( 5433 0 0 )
    Waiting termination of process 5433
    Process 5433 terminated
    Process stopped PID ( 5433 0 0 )
    MLDonkey server end
    Removing pidfile: /root/.mldonkey/mldonkey.pid
    # unset HOME
    # mldonkey_server
     Could not guess $HOME environnement variable: provide a --chdir or
$HOME
    # mldonkey_server --chdir /root/.mldonkey
    Set niceness of the process: 0
    Set uid/gid of the process (0, 0)
    Set umask of the process: 18
     Could not guess $HOME environnement variable: provide a --chdir or
$HOME
    # HOME=/nonexistent mldonkey_server --chdir /root/.mldonkey
    Set niceness of the process: 0
    Set uid/gid of the process (0, 0)
    Set umask of the process: 18
    Chdir to home dir: /nonexistent
    Writing PID (5438) to pidfile: /root/.mldonkey/mldonkey.pid
    Launching MLnet process
    2006/10/12 09:04:06 [cO] Starting MLDonkey 2.8.1 ...
    2006/10/12 09:04:06 [cO] Language EN, locale UTF-8, ulimit for open
files 1024
    2006/10/12 09:04:06 [cO] MLDonkey is working in .
    2006/10/12 09:04:06 Loading language resource
/root/.mldonkey/mlnet_strings.en_US.UTF-8
    2006/10/12 09:04:06 [cO] loaded language resource file
    2006/10/12 09:04:06 [DNS] Resolving [maillekeul] ...
    2006/10/12 09:04:06 [DNS] Resolving [www.mldonkey.net] ...
    2006/10/12 09:04:06 [cO] Logging in ./mlnet.log
    2006/10/12 09:04:06 [dMain] Core started

mldonkey_server claims that a --chdir option can replace a HOME
variable, but it cannot run if HOME is unset.

I do not understand the necessity of the following 2 lines in the
definition of the go_home function (around the line 280):
    debug st ("Chdir to home dir: " ^ (user_home st));
    Unix.putenv "HOME" (user_home st);
Why display "Chdir to home" when we chdir to chdir? It could be
necessary to set HOME if mlnet required a defined HOME variable; is it
the case? Or is it very unconventional to not have a HOME variable? I
tested the program without those lines and it works fine, so here is the
patch:

--- debian/utils/mldonkey_server.ml.orig        2006-10-12
08:53:17.000000000 +0200
+++ debian/utils/mldonkey_server.ml       2006-10-12 09:32:35.000000000
+0200
@@ -273,8 +273,7 @@
   ignore (print_log st str)

 let go_home st =
-  debug st ("Chdir to home dir: " ^ (user_home st));
-  Unix.putenv "HOME" (user_home st);
+  debug st ("Chdir to chdir dir: " ^ (get_chdir st));
   Unix.putenv "MLDONKEY_STRINGS" (Filename.concat (get_chdir st)
"mlnet_strings");
   Sys.chdir (get_chdir st)