Russ Allbery dixit: >Thorsten Glaser <t...@mirbsd.de> writes: > >> You got your merged /usr already, and to force packages to move their >> files WILL break users’ systems. In particular, mksh as /bin/sh is a >> supported configuration. > >Could you explain how this would break a user's system? From your second >sentence I'm guessing that you're anticipating some problem related to >diversions, but I can't put the pieces together without some more details.
If I have a link from /bin/sh to a binary from the mksh package, then on normal upgrades dpkg updates it atomically. Diverting the binary in /bin/ away will leave the symlink from /bin/sh (which is managed by the local admin because the dash package ignored two(!) rc bugs regarding its changed /bin/sh management behaviour, when they broke it, for more than two releases so the bug got eventually closed so mksh couldn’t offer package-controlled /bin/sh management that was coordinated with bash post-lenny) dangling. Despite all this, running with mksh (the /bin/lksh binary) as /bin/sh is a supported configuration (Policy 10.4), and I’ve read of many users who are doing this. This means that, hypothetically, should someone upload mksh with the suggested move, which would divert the /bin/ files away in preinst, users would need to be told to manually change their /bin/sh back to bash for a bit, upgrade then, and then switch it back, or have their system break on upgrade. This is fragile, and the “benefits” are nowhere even near worth it: /usr-merge per top-level symlinks per CTTE was forced on all systems, so we got that now, and it is absolutely unnecessary for packages that are not part of the pseudo-Essential set to move their files because their implicit Pre-Depends on the Essential set will ensure that the /bin symlink is already in place so this is a total nōn-issue. bye, //mirabilos -- I believe no one can invent an algorithm. One just happens to hit upon it when God enlightens him. Or only God invents algorithms, we merely copy them. If you don't believe in God, just consider God as Nature if you won't deny existence. -- Coywolf Qi Hunt
