On Tue 28 Aug 2018 at 09:48:06 (-0400), Luis Finotti wrote:
> # dpkg -P sendmail-base
> (Reading database ... 1562548 files and directories currently installed.)
> Removing sendmail-base (8.15.2-11) ...
> update-inetd: error: --group is only relevant with --add
> dpkg: error processing package sendmail-base (--purge):
> installed sendmail-base package pre-removal script subprocess returned
> error exit status 255
> Errors were encountered while processing:
> sendmail-base
>
> Any suggestions?
I would take a look at the pre-removal script sendmail-base.prerm to
see what it's trying to do. If there are parts that aren't sensible,
you could comment them out, alter things so that they can work, or
even just make them "succeed" with "|| true" so you get to the end
of the script. (Check sendmail-base.postinst while you're about it.)
The scripts will contain a record of what modifications they intended
to make to your system, so ultimately all you need to do is nullify
those changes, remove the files in sendmail-base.list and convince
dpkg that the package is purged. Manually if necessary.
Thanks for the pointer! sendmail-base.prerm had the line:
update-inetd --group MAIL --disable smtp,smtps,submission;
and I was getting the error
update-inetd: error: --group is only relevant with --add
So, I changed it to:
update-inetd --disable smtp,smtps,submission;
and was then able to uninstall it.
Thanks again for your help.