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Re: "dpkg-reconfigure" dash no longer works



On 2023-06-09 at 12:00, Charles Curley wrote:

> On Fri, 9 Jun 2023 13:38:25 +0000
> S M <mythrowy777@hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I noticed on a newly installed system with Debian 12 that
>> dpkg-reconfigure no longer allows to switch the /bin/sh symlink from
>> dash to bash.
> 
> You can still change it manually (rm ; ln -s).

Or just 'ln -sf', to do it in something closer to an atomic fashion.

Except that, since (at least from what I can see on a quick check) the
/bin/sh symlink appears to be shipped explicitly in the dash package,
next time that package gets upgraded the symlink will probably be
overwritten with one pointing back to dash again.

If the system is smart enough to not replace a sysadmin-edited symlink
during package upgrade, then that wouldn't happen - but I'd honestly
expect that it would, since otherwise if a symlink got messed up and
broke things, reinstalling the package it came from wouldn't be
guaranteed to fix those things.

Of course, there's still the question of the *reason* why this change
was made and why using anything but dash for /bin/sh is now considered
no longer supported. I don't have any explanation for that, and until
the maintainers actually give one, neither do the rest of us - but in
the absence of one, it's hard to be sure that pointing the symlink to
/bin/bash won't break something.

-- 
   The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.         -- George Bernard Shaw

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