Bug#402141: kernel-package: Creates useless and harmfull symlink to build-time location of source
Package: kernel-package
Version: 10.065
Severity: normal
>From the discussion in an unrelated bug report:
> >> I agree. However, before submitting a bugreport I'd like to know
> >> whether this problem still exists. Does anyone have a linux source
> >> and kernel-package installed in a sid environment?
> >>
> > I do. Or say better I can prepare the box. What should I do?
>
> Ah, great. Unpack the sources below $HOME (to be sure, name the
> directory "linux", not "linux-<version>"), run "make-kpkg --rootcmf
> fakeroot kernel_image" (or whatever root command you like), don't clean
> the source tree, and look whether there's a symlink from
> ./debian/linux-image-<version>/lib/modules/<version>/source to
> /home/hille/wherever/linux
>
hille@kloetzer:~ $ pwd
/home/hille/linux/debian/linux-image-2.6.18/lib/modules/2.6.18
hille@kloetzer:~ $
hille@kloetzer:~ $ ls -l source build
lrwxrwxrwx 1 hille hille 17 Dec 8 12:51 build -> /home/hille/linux
lrwxrwxrwx 1 hille hille 17 Dec 8 12:51 source -> /home/hille/linux
hille@kloetzer:~ $
This symlink in the binary package to the location of the sources at
build-time doesn't make sense, because usually they won't be available
when the package is installed (IMHO, only symlinks to files in the
package or in depended-on packages should be present in deb packages).
I wrote that the symlink is also harmful because, before the tree is
cleaned, it's a circular symlink, and not every piece of software that
does some searching is able to handle this gracefully.
Regards, Frank
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (99, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.16-2-686
Locale: LANG=de_DE@euro, LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro (charmap=ISO-8859-15)
Versions of packages kernel-package depends on:
ii dpkg 1.10.28 Package maintenance system for Deb
ii dpkg-dev 1.10.28 Package building tools for Debian
ii file 4.12-1 Determines file type using "magic"
ii gcc [c-compiler] 4:3.3.5-3 The GNU C compiler
ii gcc-3.3 [c-compiler] 1:3.3.5-13 The GNU C compiler
ii gettext 0.14.4-2 GNU Internationalization utilities
ii make 3.81-1bpo1 The GNU version of the "make" util
ii perl 5.8.4-8sarge5 Larry Wall's Practical Extraction
ii po-debconf 1.0 manage translated Debconf template
-- no debconf information
--
Dr. Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)
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