Bug#188364: apt should handle nonexistent cache directory gracefully

[Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org>]

tags 188364 - patch
thanks

On Sun, Apr 18, 2004 at 10:42:27PM +0200, Martin Pitt wrote:

> I just noticed the same problem because I wiped my /var/cache to clean
> up. According to FHS 5.2 [1] applications must regenerate their stuff
> below /var/cache without complaining.

Deleting _files_ under /var/cache is permitted; programs are not expected to
recover from deleting the entire directory structure (in some cases they
will not even have privileges to do so).

> AFAIK FHS bugs are now to be considered serious, so I'm thinking about
> raising the severity.

Please don't.

> It also has a patch (I just tagged the bug), so can you please
> consider applying it to fix this by the Sarge release?

Some of the problems with the patch:

- It duplicates the code to create the directories in four different places

- It adds unnecessary code to create Dir::State::Lists and the corresponding
  partial directory.  It is not necessary for apt to attempt to clean up
  that mess any more than if the user decides to remove /etc, even if I
  agreed with your FHS interpretation

- It doesn't check the return from stat(2) correctly

- It doesn't check the return from mkdir(2) at all

On top of these, I don't consider it necessary.  I'm unlikely to apply an
improper patch for a wishlist bug.

-- 
 - mdz