package: checkinstall version: 1.5.3-3 severity: grave On Thu, 8 Dec 2005, Fabian Greffrath wrote:
package: checkinstall version: 1.5.3-3 severity: grave Hello! I wanted to use checkinstall to create a 'Sun Java JRE' Package out of Sun's self-installing bin-file. So I started 'checkinstall ./jre-1_5_0-$foo.bin' as root several times and tried out some of the options to make the package meet my needs. After playing around with checkinstall a bit, a severe problem occured on my system: I could not log in as a normal user anymore but only as root. Trying to log in as a normal user allways gave the error message 'no shell'. Programs like exim4, sudo and gdm did not work anymore either. After a lot of work and time I found out that the permissions of the base dir '/' were set to 700! So a simple 'chmod 755 /' was the solution. Nevertheless I have not been far away from reinstalling Debian! I do not know if 'checkinstall' itself or 'installwatch' are blamable on this, but I think that it MUST be guaranteed that no program leaves your system in such a state. No matter if the user has done a handling error / faulty operation or not.
Well, the first thing that would be useful to know is exactly what options did you use the last time you ran checkinstall. It would be really useful for trying to figure out what actually happened to your system. Please send it ;-)
The second thing is, the other week I wanted to delete a file from my system. I had some trouble doing it. So I played with some of the options of the rm program and suddenly my system became completely unstable! Upon examination and after a lot of work I found out that the thing had removed half of the files of my system!
The moral of the story: I agree with you, it MUST be guaranteed that no program leaves your system in such a state. I.e. don't mess with your system!
But if the program's job IS to actually mess with the system (rm, checkinstall, installwatch, etc) then all you can do is to educate the user about it's proper use and do your best to avoid putting too much bugs in ;-)
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