Bug#67174: install-info updates the wrong dir file
On Fri, Jul 14, 2000 at 02:24:27PM +0200, Rickard Westman wrote:
> > reassign 67174 tetex-bin
> (...)
> > tetex-bin package, which installed /usr/share/info/dir.gz file, is at
> > fault here.
>
> I don't think it's right to reassign this bug to tetex-bin. That package
> may have some related bug (I don't have it installed, so I don't really
> know) but the bug described in this report concerns the install-info
> script, which is part of the dpkg package.
>
> install-info is supposed to be used whenever a package is installed which
> includes documentation in info format. The purpose of this script is to
> update the "dir file" which contains meta-info about all info files in a
> given info directory. With the current Debian file system standard, info
> files are stored in /usr/share/info, whereas the buggy install-info script
> updates the dir file in /usr/info (the location of info files in older
> releases of Debian.) Thus, info files are installed in the right location,
> but the wrong dir file is updated.
>
> The effect is that an info reader which just looks in the standard info
> directory, /usr/share/info, will present an incomplete top-level menu.
> On the other hand, an info reader which just looks in the old standard
> location (emacs19 is an example) will present menu items for info files
> which it can't find.
The dir file actually does need to be in /usr/info, for compatilibility
reasons. Any decent info files reader program will look in /usr/info for a
dir file, too.
--
Digital Electronic Being Intended for Assassination and Nullification
Reply to: