Re: Bug#32888: apt removes base without asking too much
On 4 Mar 1999, Kai Henningsen wrote:
> reassign 32888 base
> thanks
Please don't do this, the base package does no longer exist, and Enrique
is the maintainer but only as a fallback. I think he has already
reassigned the bug back to "general".
> You completely miss the point.
I may have missed the point, but not completely.
> sanvila@unex.es (Santiago Vila) wrote on 04.03.99 in <Pine.LNX.3.96.990304142204.4913A-100000@cantor.unex.es>:
>
> > IMHO, it is not a bug that dpkg lets the user to remove an essential
> > package by using
> >
> > dpkg --force-remove-essential --remove essentialpackage
> >
> > It is a bug that the packaging system does it on behalf of the user
> > by asking a simple yes/no question (which is what apt seems to do).
> >
> > In this case, at least, I would suggest apt to ask the question
> > in such way that "No" is the default answer.
>
> This would *NOT* solve the bug in question, IMO.
It depends on how we look at it.
> The bug is that base has become an obsolete package, BUT IT STILL CONTAINS
> ESSENTIAL FILES. (In newly installed systems, these files - quite
> correctly - don't belong to any package.)
[ BTW: No need to shout ].
The way I see it, the bug is that apt lets the user to remove *any*
essential package just by pressing Enter.
> Either there should still be a "base" package in the archive, or the
> installed "base" package should not contain essential files.
Or apt should not let the user to remove an essential package.
> If you want to change apt's behaviour, create a separate bug report for
> that.
Well, clearly we are talking about two different things here.
a) Some systems have an obsolete base package, that we should probably try
to remove in a clean way.
b) APT lets the user to remove any essential package, but this should
probably be very difficult to do from dselect, regardless of the access
method.
Both bo and hamm had already bug a), and it was not grave because "base"
was essential and it may not be removed easily.
Bug b) is new, and I think it is grave, because you may deselect any
essential package by mistake (not only "base") and apt will remove it as
soon as you press Enter.
Now, since, IMHO, a) is normal and b) is grave, I reassigned this bug
(which was tagged as critical by the submitter) to apt.
I was not missing the point, I was reassigning the bug according to the
relative severity of a) and b), which seem to be mixed in the bug report.
The bug report was the result of both a) and b) and *not* only a
consecuence of a).
> For *this* bug, one possible solution would be to reassign the bug to base-
> files, and patch the base-files pre- or postinst adding a line like this:
>
> # free any files base still owns
> [ -f /var/lib/dpkg/info/base.list ] && : > /var/lib/dpkg/info/base.list
>
> MfG Kai
You clearly refer to a).
I agree a) should ideally be fixed in base-files (if it has to be fixed
at all), but I would like to know the proposed solution by Ian Jackson
first.
I disagree that a) is critical, because base was essential.
However, I think b) is grave.
Question: Am I the only who thinks that b) is grave?
It's apt who makes easy to remove an essential package.
Thanks.
--
"eb392b2fb6150c57f14f9f74a68a3700" (a truly random sig)
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