tags 316521 - patch retitle 316521 dpkg forgets shared directories containing manually generated files which are removed by postrm purge thanks
The situation on this bug is a bit complicated so I'll make a summary... I took some time to read everything. First of all, Frank fixed the bulk of the initial problem by deferring removal of directories containing conffiles to after the purge. This is commit e0bea5706dd1a0accb39a28f7002d30c10b4caa6 that got fixed in dpkg 1.13.20. However we still have one scenario where dpkg "forgets" (rightfully) that a directory is part of a package because the package doesn't have any packaged file inside that directory: it's when the directory is shared with other packages. Obviously dpkg can't remove the dir since it's still in active use by other packages. The problem appears however when the just removed (and not yet purged) package is responsible of a manually generated file inside that directory. When all the other packages that share the directory are removed, nobody owns the directory and even purging the package that created the last file left, the directory won't be removed as it's no more associated to it. Bart proposed a patch that basically forbids dpkg to forget the directories as long as they are shared by multiple packages (see http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=318825#27). This is definitely not the proper solution as all removed packages would be listed as owner of directories that they shouldn't own anymore. Until we provide a way for packages to teach what files are generated by each package, I only see two solutions: - either we define that the "postrm purge" should try to remove parent directories too - or we ask dpkg to remember directories that it can't remove if they contain at least one file not owned by any package and if they have a postrm script (this is the smallest subset of packages that we can identify and that could be responsible of the removal of the given directory) Cheers, PS: FTR, the bulk of the discussion is in 318825 and 348133. -- Raphaël Hertzog Le best-seller français mis à jour pour Debian Etch : http://www.ouaza.com/livre/admin-debian/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]