Bug#1049969: cron-daemon-common: the /etc/cron.hourly line in /etc/crontab is broken

[Ansgar]

Hi,

On Sat, 2023-08-19 at 11:17 +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> First, I initially wasn't aware that this was assuming usrmerge:
> there was no announce at all. Moreover, doing partial upgrades
> is not breaking the system. This is perfectly allowed. That's why
> there is a dependency system, and here, no Depends or Recommends
> was broken.

No, packages in testing/unstable will expect essential packages to come
from stable or later without explicit versioned dependencies.

If you mix oldstable + unstable packages, you create an unsupportable
system state ("Frankendebian").  If something then breaks, you get to
fix it yourself; don't expect others to support such a setup.

Ansgar

Bug#1049969: cron-daemon-common: the /etc/cron.hourly line in /etc/crontab is broken

[Vincent Lefevre]

On 2023-08-19 07:39:24 +0200, Ansgar wrote:
> On Fri, 2023-08-18 at 22:45 +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> > On 2023-08-18 07:35:33 +0200, Ansgar wrote:
> > > Please investigate why "usrmerge" is not installed (I assume this is an
> > > upgraded system).  Or, if it is installed, why /bin, /sbin, /lib* are
> > > not symlinks to their respective counterparts in /usr.
> > 
> > I've not upgraded init-system-helpers to 1.65.2 yet
> 
> Please don't file RC bugs if you intentionally break your system.
> Probably not non-RC bugs either.

First, I initially wasn't aware that this was assuming usrmerge:
there was no announce at all. Moreover, doing partial upgrades
is not breaking the system. This is perfectly allowed. That's why
there is a dependency system, and here, no Depends or Recommends
was broken.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre  - Web: 
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: 
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Bug#1049969: cron-daemon-common: the /etc/cron.hourly line in /etc/crontab is broken

[Ansgar]

On Fri, 2023-08-18 at 22:45 +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> On 2023-08-18 07:35:33 +0200, Ansgar wrote:
> > Please investigate why "usrmerge" is not installed (I assume this is an
> > upgraded system).  Or, if it is installed, why /bin, /sbin, /lib* are
> > not symlinks to their respective counterparts in /usr.
> 
> I've not upgraded init-system-helpers to 1.65.2 yet

Please don't file RC bugs if you intentionally break your system.
Probably not non-RC bugs either.

Ansgar

Bug#1049969: cron-daemon-common: the /etc/cron.hourly line in /etc/crontab is broken

[Vincent Lefevre]

On 2023-08-18 07:35:33 +0200, Ansgar wrote:
> This seems the be the real issue:
> 
> +---
> | Debian Release: trixie/sid
> | [...]
> | merged-usr: no
> +---[ https://bugs.debian.org/1049969#5 ]
> 
> /bin *must* be a symlink to /usr/bin, so /usr/bin/run-parts must exist
> and cron's PATH is sufficient.
> 
> Please investigate why "usrmerge" is not installed (I assume this is an
> upgraded system).  Or, if it is installed, why /bin, /sbin, /lib* are
> not symlinks to their respective counterparts in /usr.

I've not upgraded init-system-helpers to 1.65.2 yet as there are
still unresolved major issues with usrmerge:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?dist=unstable;package=usrmerge

My machines are very old (2015), and there is some risk to break things
(I've actually been in the process to replace them for several months,
but there are issues with the French administration, and this takes
time).

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre  - Web: 
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: 
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Bug#1049969: cron-daemon-common: the /etc/cron.hourly line in /etc/crontab is broken

[Ansgar]

Control: retitle -1 trixie/sid system ended up with split-usr

Hi,

On Thu, 17 Aug 2023 18:42:14 +0200 Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> Control: retitle -1 cron-daemon-common: in /etc/crontab, run-parts is no 
> longer in $PATH
> 
> That's actually the real reason.
> 
> /etc/crontab has
> 
> PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
> 
> but
> 
> zira:~> dlocate =run-parts
> debianutils: /bin/run-parts

This seems the be the real issue:

+---
| Debian Release: trixie/sid
| [...]
| merged-usr: no
+---[ https://bugs.debian.org/1049969#5 ]

/bin *must* be a symlink to /usr/bin, so /usr/bin/run-parts must exist
and cron's PATH is sufficient.

Please investigate why "usrmerge" is not installed (I assume this is an
upgraded system).  Or, if it is installed, why /bin, /sbin, /lib* are
not symlinks to their respective counterparts in /usr.

Ansgar

Bug#1049969: cron-daemon-common: the /etc/cron.hourly line in /etc/crontab is broken

[Vincent Lefevre]

Control: retitle -1 cron-daemon-common: in /etc/crontab, run-parts is no longer 
in $PATH

That's actually the real reason.

/etc/crontab has

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

but

zira:~> dlocate =run-parts
debianutils: /bin/run-parts

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre  - Web: 
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: 
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

Bug#1049969: cron-daemon-common: the /etc/cron.hourly line in /etc/crontab is broken

[Vincent Lefevre]

Package: cron-daemon-common
Version: 3.0pl1-166
Severity: serious

(set to serious because this is a regression whose effect will
be to send a spurious mail every hour)

After upgrading to 3.0pl1-166, I got a mail with


Subject: Cron  cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly

/bin/sh: 1: run-parts: not found


This corresponds to this line in /etc/crontab:

17 ** * *   rootcd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly

And I suppose that I will get such a mail every hour.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: trixie/sid
  APT prefers unstable-debug
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 
'stable-security'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 
'experimental')
merged-usr: no
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.4.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE, TAINT_OOT_MODULE, 
TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=POSIX, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages cron-daemon-common depends on:
ii  adduser  3.137

cron-daemon-common recommends no packages.

cron-daemon-common suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre  - Web: 
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: 
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)