install-info
Package: dpkg
Version: Every one since time began
Sorry to send this to so many but I feel it is both important and
urgent and no-one seems to be addressing it; I have had no reply from the
advertised maintainer of dpkg to the message below, so I'm now forwarding it
to a wider audience. Since I'm not (yet) a registered Debian developer it
actually makes no sense for me to get involved in fixing install-info when
there must surely be hundreds of people already in who could do it if
someone would just stress the importance of doing it. I hope to provide such
stress ;)
install-info is broken. You know it's broken, several million bug reports
testify to the fact, but they have never been assigned the priority they
deserve, and never had anything done about them. Fact: lots, probably
hundreds of Debian packages use install-info. Fact: The brokenness of
install-info can prevent the successful installation of these packages.
Fact: This can severely, I would say CRITICALLY impede both installations
and upgrades to any Debian system. It's at least as critical as a major bug
in dpkg itself.
I can't believe everyone is so busy that they can't find the time to at
least paper over the cracks in install-info (better locking, tidy up if
dying unexpectedly, able to make a simple /usr/info/dir if one doesn't exist
and there's no backup) BEFORE potato makes stable.
Here is the original mail I sent to the dpkg maintainer:
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 14:32:50 +0000
From: Jammin Wheeler <cziabjw@brucia.ulcc.ac.uk>
To: wakkerma@debian.org
Cc: b.wheeler@ulcc.ac.uk, jammin@life.eu.org
Subject: Status of install-info
I'm sending you this directly rather than to the bugs submission list
because I am concerned that it needs to be fixed promptly before potato
is released and I don't think the bugs list has given it enough priority.
I'm also offering directly to help with it.
install-info is broken, badly, and because so many packages use it and its
brokenness can and does prevent their successful installation I believe it
should be absolute top priority.
Many different bugs occur due to its brokenness. The most frequently reported
are that it cannot cope if /usr/info/dir is missing or doesn't contain what
it should. There are others, like this:
Can't "last" outside a block at /usr/sbin/install-info line 229.
which causes it to bail out leaving dir.lock and thus preventing any more
successful usage.
It is also capable of leaving dir itself in a broken or unusable state.
All these problems need to be addressed as a whole, and as a whole they add
up to a Critical in my book. Despite ever ascending version numbers, no-one
seems to have started addressing the problems. If you find you have inadequate
time to do so, I am offering to do so during the coming week.
Please let me know if I can help in any way. I am extremely keen to get this
fixed, because until it is Debian as a whole looks broken and I can't persuade
my work colleagues to switch over from the dreaded Redhat...
--
Ben/Jammin Wheeler <b.wheeler@ulcc.ac.uk>
a perl CGI script using DNA spoofing to masquerade as a unix sysadmin
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Jammin Wheeler <jammin@life.eu.org>
a perl CGI script using DNA spoofing to masquerade as a unix sysadmin
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