Package: dpkg Version: 1.4.0.34 Severity: grave the dpkg package includes a perl script /usr/sbin/install-info that is used (at least) by many package's .prerm or .postinstall etc. scripts.
The GNU texinfo suite also contains a C program called install-info. they have similar functions, but not identical. in particular, recent versions of both programs do not accept the same argument syntax. Users may have good reason to have the GNU install-info on their system and in their $PATH. For example, teTeX (the std distribution, not the Debian packages) includes the program. (I do a lot of work with TeX, and I prefer to use my own teTeX installation rather than Debian's because this allows me better flexibility for experimenting with the TeX installation or with multiple TeX installations.) If the .prerm etc. scripts call the GNU program because it is earlier in the $PATH, they break. Then all packages whose scripts call install-info cannot be either installed or uninstalled without some manual fixing quite inobvious to the naive user. There are numerous reports of this problem on debian.user and at least one bug report (mine). (I'll try to combine this bug report with any others I see.) My thoughts on a resolution: As a workaround, users can "type install-info" and if they don't get /usr/sbin/install-info, they can rearrange their PATH or I don't think that it's unreasonable to have the GNU version's directory in the $PATH before /usr/sbin, so I don't think dpkg should count on a pathless invocation of install-info resolving to /usr/sbin/install-info. I don't think adding full paths to the .prerm etc scripts will solve all the problems with having two different executables with the same name on the same system. My opinion is that Debian's install-info had better change its name or be made to be a substitute for the GNU program (all versions? some versions? seems more trouble than it's worth.) I think it will be worthwhile for myself to write a repair script which would (help) restore /usr/info and /usr/info/dir to the correct state after commenting out many "install-info" lines in the .prerm etc. scripts in order to get packages installed/deinstalled. If I write a useful script, I will send it as a followup to this report and post it on debian.user. -- System Information Debian Release: 2.1 Kernel Version: Linux aleph 2.0.36 #1 Fri Jan 15 18:12:05 EST 1999 i586 unknown Versions of the packages dpkg depends on: ii libc6 2.1.1-1 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and timezone ii libncurses4 4.2-3 Shared libraries for terminal handling pi libstdc++2.9 2.91.60-5 The GNU stdc++ library (egcs version)
