Re: Bug#303596: Emacs installation fails on vfat fs

[Stephen Gildea <gildea@stop.mail-abuse.org>]

>   "Since /usr/local can be mounted read-only from a remote server, these
>   directories must be created and removed by the postinst and prerm
>   maintainer scripts and not be included in the .deb archive. These
>   scripts must not fail if either of these operations fail." (9.1.2)
>   since the chmodding is clearly part of the creation of the directory.

I agree that the "mkdir, chown, chmod" sequence is logically part of the
single operation of directory creation.

I also point out that if a chown/chmod operation by root on an existent
directory fails, there's nothing to be done about it, whether you notice
it or not.

>   And regarding the example, it's just this, an example, and therefor
>   probably not really a policy recomendation in itself.

I agree.  I notice that the example script fragment in 9.1.2 will not
fail if the mkdir (the most important operation) fails.  Thus I suspect
that the script's failing if the chown or chmod fails is a bug in the
example script.

Even though it's only an example, not normative, the script fragment in
the policy manual probably should be corrected, because people will base
actual scripts on this example, e.g., the one this bug report is about.
I think the fix included in the bug report would work for this script
fragment, too.

 < Stephen