Re: /usr/share/doc vs. /usr/doc transition, debate reopened

[Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk>]

(To debian-dpkg: there is a big discussion about an alleged dpkg bug
with symlink handling in /usr/doc.)

I'd like everyone to know that I'm looking at this thread again with
some interest.

There is a bug with handling certain kinds of entries which might be
relevant to symlink handling.  It's fixed in my current CVS tree, but
I don't know if the NMU series has it.  The patch for this bug is
below.  It's NOT the same as the patch that seems to have been applied
in the NMU series, and the patch in the NMU series is wrong.

I'm not sure yet what the test cases people are presenting are.  dpkg
is not supposed ever to remove a nonempty directory and replace it
with a symlink to a different directory.  If someone can reproduce it
doing this I'd be very interested.

Ian.

Joseph Carter writes ("Re: /usr/share/doc vs. /usr/doc transition, debate reopened"):
...
> But you see, the file was removed from NEWDIR too!  Totally gone.
> Deleted.  if it were not deleted, olddir would not have been deleted
> (non-empty)...  The dpkg bug STILL applies and I can demonstrate that too
> if you like.

Index: archives.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr/src/CVS/dpkg/main/archives.c,v
retrieving revision 1.4
retrieving revision 1.5
diff -u -r1.4 -r1.5
--- archives.c	1999/03/13 14:13:11	1.4
+++ archives.c	1999/07/22 00:53:21	1.5
@@ -351,15 +351,17 @@
           printf("Replacing files in old package %s ...\n",otherpkg->name);
           otherpkg->clientdata->replacingfilesandsaid= 1;
         } else {
-          if (S_ISDIR(stab.st_mode)) {
-            forcibleerr(fc_overwritedir, "trying to overwrite directory `%.250s' "
-                        "in package %.250s with nondirectory",
-                        nifd->namenode->name,otherpkg->name);
-          } else {
-            forcibleerr(fc_overwrite,
-                        "trying to overwrite `%.250s', which is also in package %.250s",
-                        nifd->namenode->name,otherpkg->name);
-          }
+	  if (statr) {
+	    /* Whatever it was has disappeared. */
+	  } else if (S_ISDIR(stab.st_mode)) {
+	    forcibleerr(fc_overwritedir, "trying to overwrite directory `%.250s' "
+			"in package %.250s with nondirectory",
+			nifd->namenode->name,otherpkg->name);
+	  } else {
+	    forcibleerr(fc_overwrite,
+			"trying to overwrite `%.250s', which is also in package %.250s",
+			nifd->namenode->name,otherpkg->name);
+	  }
         }
       }
     }