slink package upgrades fail

[Fred Yankowski <fcy@mcs.net>]

Bob Nielsen writes:
 > After yesterdays package updates, I get the following error messages:
 > 
 > Preparing to replace netstd 3.07-4 (using netstd_3.07-5.deb) ...
 > Can't locate DebianNet.pm in @INC (@INC contains:
 > /usr/lib/perl5/i386-linux/5.005 /usr/lib/perl5/5.005
 > /usr/local/lib/site_perl/i386-linux /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at
 > /usr/sbin/update-inetd line 23.

Here is one workaround, based on a debian-user post that I found in
the archives.  As root, do this:

	cd /usr/local/lib
	mv site_perl site_perl.SAVE
	ln -s /usr/lib/perl5 site_perl

Now try the installation/upgrade again.

This works because the update-inetd perl script requires the DebianNet
module, which exists at /usr/lib/perl5/DebianNet.pm.  Unfortunately,
/usr/lib/perl5 is not in the built-in perl module search path.
Creating the symbolic link as above causes /usr/local/lib/site_perl,
which is in the path, to stand in for /usr/lib/perl5.  Of course, this
will hide anything that you actually had in your local
/usr/local/lib/site_perl directory.  Remember to undo this kluge when
it is no longer needed.  You might want to undo it as soon as the
problematic netstd upgrade works correctly.

This bug is going to cost hundreds of hours of wasted time across all
Debian users, I'm sure of it.  The problem has been known for some
time -- could the responsible package owners (I can't figure out which
package is to blame) please get us a fix!

--
Fred Yankowski
fcy@mcs.net