Package: cdebootstrap
Version: 0.7.3
Severity: normal
Tags: patch
Hi,
since dpkg 1.18.5 reached sid and testing cdeboostrap fails with (if run
with --debug):
dpkg (subprocess): failed to chdir to '': No such file or directory
cdebootstrap is calling dpkg with --force-all which enables
--force-script-chrootless and that means dpkg tries to chdir to it's
instdir which cdebootstrap does not set.
dpkg will likely not fail in this way with its next upload (presumably
1.18.8).
This bug is really to say that dpkg --force-all does not appear sensible
for any real use and is likely to repeatedly lead to odd things as long
as it exists and is being used by cdebootstrap. It simply enables every
dpkg force option and not any set that tries to make any sense. So for
example it sets confnew and confold simultaneously.
dpkg --force-all does everything from disable verification to enabling
unsafe-io to allowing breaks and conflicts, I don't think cdebootstrap
needs or wants nearly any of these options. In future it only seems
likely to break or do unexpected things to cdebootstrap.
The (hopefully) attached patch works for cdebootstrapping into a clean
target but I don't know how it should behave for an unlean target
(confold or confnew? confdef?). I'm also not sure if
--force-architecture could be needed or not in any cdebootstrap uses.
What it does do is prevent ugly things like packages overwriting each
other or introducing breaks/conflicts but hopefully nobody is depending
on that kind of behaviour.
debootstrap does force confold at times, and I'm not sure how you intend
cdebootstrap to behave into a dirty target (or if it matters at all to
dpkg and base-passwd, the only packages installed this way in the
default suite), but I think the current behaviour ends up undefined by
passing the buck to --force-all.
Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Niall
-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Versions of packages cdebootstrap depends on:
ii debian-archive-keyring 2014.3
ii gpgv 1.4.20-6
ii libbz2-1.0 1.0.6-8
ii libc6 2.22-8
ii libcurl3-gnutls 7.47.0-1
ii libdebian-installer-extra4 0.104
ii libdebian-installer4 0.104
ii liblzma5 5.1.1alpha+20120614-2.1
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.8.dfsg-2+b1
cdebootstrap recommends no packages.
cdebootstrap suggests no packages.
-- no debconf information
--- ../cdebootstrap-0.7.3/src/install.c 2016-05-14 17:21:23.678022968 +0100
+++ src/install.c 2016-05-14 19:51:30.675105075 +0100
@@ -285,8 +285,6 @@
*c++ = "dpkg";
*c++ = "--configure";
*c++ = "-a";
- if (force)
- *c++ = "--force-all";
if (!simulate_handler)
*c++ = "--status-fd=3";
*c = NULL;
@@ -312,7 +310,7 @@
*c++ = "dpkg";
*c++ = "--install";
if (force)
- *c++ = "--force-all";
+ *c++ = "--force-depends";
if (!simulate_handler)
*c++ = "--status-fd=3";
*c = NULL;
@@ -326,7 +324,7 @@
*c++ = "dpkg";
*c++ = "--unpack";
- *c++ = "--force-all";
+ *c++ = "--force-depends";
if (!simulate_handler)
*c++ = "--status-fd=3";
*c = NULL;
