Bug#2033: efax installation problems
Hi, this comes belated as I was away for Xmas... Carl Streeter writes: Carl> >> No! It is a conffile because /usr/bin/fax, a bash script, was the only >> place to set your local fax settings as serial port, modem capabilities, >> INIT strings, phone number, prinyer what have you. Carl> If this is still the case, then /usr/bin/fax should be a symlink Carl> into /etc, and the script should reside there. /usr should be Carl> considered read-only... It is no longer the case. I proposed to the upstream author the sourcing of /etc/efax.rc which he gladly accepted. It will be part of the next upstream release. The Debian releases since revsion 2 already contain it. Being a lousy script programmer, I introduced (and then fixed) some bugs during the conversion from the original to the current state. For your perusal, here's my Debian.ChangeLog: Sun Dec 17 16:34:41 1995 Dirk Eddelbuettel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * efax-07a-4 release * debian.rules: include missing debian.preinst (bug#2041) and really create the directories in /var/spool/fax * debian.postinst: quoted strings (bug#2041) Sat Dec 16 14:26:19 1995 Dirk Eddelbuettel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * efax-07a-3 release * efax.rc: (no real change) FAXINDIR, FAXOUTDIR, FAXLOGDIR use /var/spool/* and not /usr/spool/* as this looks better (bug#2033) * debian.rules: creates directories recvq, sendq and log in /var/spool/fax with mode 2775 and group dialout (bug#2033) * debian.postinst, debian.control: suggests "/etc/efax.rc" for local changes instead of /usr/bin/fax (bug#2033) * debian.postinst, debian.preinst: save existing fax script and deal with it; /usr/bin/fax is no longer a conffile (bug#2033) Mon Dec 11 20:27:42 1995 Dirk Eddelbuettel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * efax-07a-2 release * efax.c: version string reflects Debian upon author's request * efax.c and fax patched with qfax patches from ftp.renaissoft.com This version of efax can now be used with the qfax program suite that adds an e-mail-to-fax gateway to efax, a phonebook database system, automated cover page generation, and fax spooling for delayed transmission of faxes. * fax: now sources /etc/efax.rc and/or ~/.efaxrc, manpage updated * debian.postinst: warn if no user in group dialout * debian.control: ELF release, depends on libc5 Tue Sep 26 13:50:50 1995 Dirk Eddelbuettel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * efax-07a-1 release * debian.control: Changes Depends: gs to Suggests: gs and reworded the description to explain that only ascii text can be faxed without ghostscript Thu Sep 7 23:05:53 1995 Dirk Eddelbuettel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * efax-07a-0: Initial Debian release, added package maintenance files, edited Makefile and /usr/bin/fax slightly to Debian standards -- Dirk Eddelb|ttelhttp://qed.econ.queensu.ca/~edd
Bug#2033: efax installation problems
> No! It is a conffile because /usr/bin/fax, a bash script, was the > only place to set your local fax settings as serial port, modem capabilities, > INIT strings, phone number, prinyer what have you. If this is still the case, then /usr/bin/fax should be a symlink into /etc, and the script should reside there. /usr should be considered read-only... Carl Streeter | "I'll forgive even GNU emacs as long [EMAIL PROTECTED] | as gcc is available" --Linus Torvalds Just another Perl hacker | "You've got a body in the garage, minus Ask me about Debian/GNU Linux.| a head. Take me to it." --The Wolf
Bug#2033: efax installation problems
> Robert> 2. /usr/bin/fax should probably no longer be listed in conffiles. > > No! It is a conffile because /usr/bin/fax, a bash script, was the > only place to set your local fax settings as serial port, modem capabilities, > INIT strings, phone number, prinyer what have you. While /usr/bin/fax was the only place you could set these things previously, I can understand this. But now that there is /etc/efax.rc, is this still necessary? Perhaps a preinst script could detect whether configurations need to be extracted from /usr/bin/fax (and put into /etc/efax.rc) before it is clobbered? If it is listed in conffiles, then it won't go away when I remove the package, leaving (broken) executable software on my system. :( > Part a) is not a bug because /usr/spool is a soft link to /var/spool. True; the feeling I've been getting is that software should try to use the "correct" path instead wherever possible, but I agree this is probably rather insignificant. Thanks for the quick followup. -- Robert Leslie [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#2033: efax installation problems
Robert Leslie writes: Robert> Package: efax Robert> Version: 07a-2 Robert> Robert> 1. The postinst script says to modify /usr/bin/fax, but it should Robert> probably now say /etc/efax.rc instead. Thanks, I will modify that for the next release. Robert> 2. /usr/bin/fax should probably no longer be listed in conffiles. No! It is a conffile because /usr/bin/fax, a bash script, was the only place to set your local fax settings as serial port, modem capabilities, INIT strings, phone number, prinyer what have you. Suppose you added your stuff to /usr/bin/fax. Now you install a new efax. If it is not a conffile, dpkg will silently overwrite your settings in /usr/bin/fax with a fresh and unmodified efax --- so that your old settings are _lost_. Hardly desirable. Robert> 3. The software looks for spool files in /usr/spool/fax, but: a. It Robert> should probably look in /var/spool/fax instead, and b. This Robert> directory (and various subdirectories) are not created during Robert> installation (I have no idea what mode they should have?) Part a) is not a bug because /usr/spool is a soft link to /var/spool. Part b) is a bug. This is due to the qfax patches for efax that I included in this release. Qfax is an email-to-fax gateway to be used with efax. Qfax will be available in January as it's prospective maintainer told me. I will bugs 1. and 3b. Thanks for spotting them. -- Dirk Eddelb|ttelhttp://qed.econ.queensu.ca/~edd
Bug#2033: efax installation problems
Package: efax Version: 07a-2 1. The postinst script says to modify /usr/bin/fax, but it should probably now say /etc/efax.rc instead. 2. /usr/bin/fax should probably no longer be listed in conffiles. 3. The software looks for spool files in /usr/spool/fax, but: a. It should probably look in /var/spool/fax instead, and b. This directory (and various subdirectories) are not created during installation (I have no idea what mode they should have?) -- Robert Leslie [EMAIL PROTECTED]
