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Re: handling of new user/group additions in binary packages is broken



At Fri, 29 May 2009 09:04:09 +0900, "OBATA Akio" <obache%netbsd.org@localhost> 
wrote:
Subject: Re: handling of new user/group additions in binary packages is broken
> 
> > As per PR# pkg/41100, the dbus package is an excellent example.
> 
> I believe that special owner/group/permissions care must be in POST-INSTALL 
> script.
> Then, I think not "all packages are broken" but "the package is broken".
> As per PR#41100, it should be fixed by dbus-1.2.4.2nb4.

Well, I suppose that's another way to hack around the problem.

I see that SPECIAL_PERMS is sort of mentioned in passing now in the
pkgsrc guide now.  It's in the wrong place though, and not really very
well documented at all.

I think it's a bogus solution anyway though -- it would be much better
done by putting such information in to the PLIST file where it is easy
to manage in association with the list of files and other items related
to the packing list and where it will end up in the +CONTENTS file, just
as I suggested earlier (to get all the other benefits for auditing,
etc.)  This information really _must_ be preserved in the binary package
in a way that can be used easily and separately from the +INSTALL script
-- and having pkg_admin or other tools parse the +INSTALL script
comments in the way it parses them itself would be error prone,
spreading format information into the wrong places, and very inelegant
too.  Putting it in the PLIST file would also make it _much_ easier for
automated tools to maintain it in pkgsrc too!

There are many packages which do not yet use the new SPECIAL_PERMS hack
too, but if this is now the officially sanctioned hack then they should.
Mailman is one other that I've explicitly had trouble with and which I
see does not yet use SPECIAL_PERMS.  Of the tiny number of packages I
regularly build and install and use, there's also gnats and nagios which
would encounter the same problem.  I'm surprised that such a major
change of pkgsrc infrastructure was not accompanied by a full audit to
find and fix all these cases, if indeed this was a designed and planned
change.

Also keep in mind I'm not an official NetBSD developer, and I don't (and
won't and cannot) use pkgsrc-current.  These issues all remain in all of
the places I care about.  It's not really fixed until there's a working
pull-up in all the supported release branches.

-- 
                                                Greg A. Woods
                                                Planix, Inc.

<woods%planix.com@localhost>       +1 416 218-0099        http://www.planix.com/

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