Bug#924401: base-files fails postinst when base-passwd is unpacked
Hi Santiago,
On Tue, Mar 12, 2019 at 06:17:50PM +0100, Santiago Vila wrote:
> To be precise: Who is unpacking (but not configuring) a buster or
> unstable essential package set, if not a bootstrapping tool?
multistrap is doing just that.
https://manpages.debian.org/testing/multistrap/multistrap.1.en.html
| Once installed, the packages themselves need to be configured using
| the package maintainer scripts and "dpkg --configure -a", unless this
| is a native multistrap.
> Do any of them still don't know that base-passwd should be configured
> first because otherwise any other package using root (be it base-files
> or any other) will fail? I think this was already settled in the last
> discussion we had about this several years ago.
multistrap doesn't take care of this and you can provoke a
base-files.postinst failure this way.
Then there is mmdebstrap. I looked into it and couldn't find any code
that orders base-passwd or base-files or creates an /etc/passwd. It
might not fail now.
> Can you provide at least a bug number for the bootstrapping tool that
> apparently still tries to configure all packages at once, or
> base-passwd and base-files in the same row?
#924401, but I'm not yet sure which part we need to fix.
I really like Simon's (thank you for that enlightening reply) view of
interpolating the uids. It removes a bunch of problems from the equation
and works well when bootstrapping from non-Debian or from ancient Debian
releases even in chrootless mode. At the same time, it is quite safe
(due to the static allocation) and easy to implement. I fail to see
downsides.
Just because debootstrap encodes a ton of hacks to make things barely
work (and break every so often) doesn't mean we have to maintain them
until eternity.
> In other words: Is the present bug report to be considered in a
> theoretical way, or it is the result of some problem that you actually
> found recently with a bootstrapping tool?
I don't have a minimal test case at hand, but I can reproduce it with
multistrap at least.
Helmut
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