Seconded.
On Thu, 2009-11-12 at 13:29 -0800, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> writes:
> > On Thu, Oct 29 2009, Simon Horman wrote:
>
> >> Could you suggest a policy-compliant method of creating fifos for the
> >> package? At the time that I added mknod to the maintainer script the
> >> consensus that this was the best option available.
>
> > You may use mkfifo instead of mknod, since there is no policy
> > prohibition on mkfifo (and it can't be used to make special
> > files). Perhaps we can add a footnote to policy mentioning mkfifo where
> > the mknod prohibition is written?
>
> Policy currently isn't explicit about named pipes unless one considers
> them to be device files (which they sort of are and sort of aren't). I
> propose the following change to clarify this.
>
> I'm looking for seconds.
>
> commit 23cf3d94a253f1142fcd97d39320419b1014448d
> Author: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
> Date: Thu Nov 12 13:26:50 2009 -0800
>
> Clarify policy on named pipes in packages
>
> Make explicit the requirement that packages not include named pipes in
> addition to device files. State that named pipes must be created in
> postinst and removed in prerm or postrm as appropriate. Suggest in a
> footnote using mkfifo rather than mknod to avoid false positives from
> package checkers.
>
> diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
> index 9fcb660..34a45d5 100644
> --- a/policy.sgml
> +++ b/policy.sgml
> @@ -7256,8 +7256,8 @@ ln -fs ../sbin/sendmail debian/tmp/usr/bin/runq
> <heading>Device files</heading>
>
> <p>
> - Packages must not include device files in the package file
> - tree.
> + Packages must not include device files or named pipes in the
> + package file tree.
> </p>
>
> <p>
> @@ -7282,6 +7282,18 @@ ln -fs ../sbin/sendmail debian/tmp/usr/bin/runq
> <file>/dev/cu*</file> devices should be changed to use
> <file>/dev/ttyS*</file>.
> </p>
> +
> + <p>
> + Named pipes needed by the package must be created in
> + the <prgn>postinst</prgn> script<footnote>
> + It's better to use <prgn>mkfifo</prgn> rather
> + than <prgn>mknod</prgn> to create named pipes so that
> + automated checks for packages incorrectly creating device
> + files with <prgn>mknod</prgn> won't have false positives.
> + </footnote> and removed in
> + the <prgn>prerm</prgn> or <prgn>postrm</prgn> script as
> + appropriate.
> + </p>
> </sect>
>
> <sect id="config-files">
>
> --
> Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
>
>
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andrew (AT) morphoss (DOT) com +64(272)DEBIAN
Flexibility is overrated. Constraints are liberating.
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