Bug#266379: Can't rm directory in postinst

[Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>]

Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org> schrieb:

> Package: tetex-bin
> Version: 2.0.2-18
>
> During the ugrade of a sid chroot I noticed the following error:
>
> (Reading database ... 61584 files and directories currently installed.)
> Preparing to replace tetex-bin 2.0.2-15 (using .../tetex-bin_2.0.2-18_hppa.deb) ...
> Unpacking replacement tetex-bin ...
> rm: cannot remove `/usr/share/texmf/web2c': Is a directory
> Selecting previously deselected package tetex-base.
> Unpacking tetex-base (from .../tetex-base_2.0.2a-3_all.deb) ...

This file has been a symlink previously. In the preinst, this symlink is
removed[1], and the new package contains it as a directory. I do not
understand the error message - either it is not a directory (it is
non-existent, only in the filelist), or it is a directory, but there's
no reason why it should be removed. 

I appreciate any hints how this error messages comes about, and how I
can prevent it. But currently I'm happy to live with it, because only
this way the symlink is in fact transformed to a directory.

Regards, Frank

[1] in the next version, it will just be moved to
web2c.moved-by-preinst, so that it can be restored should the upgrade
fail and back up to the old version


-- 
Frank Küster, Biozentrum der Univ. Basel
Abt. Biophysikalische Chemie