On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 09:55:29PM +0200, Serafeim Zanikolas wrote: > Package: debian-policy > Version: 3.8.2.0 > Severity: normal
> Hello policy makers :) > update-inetd is seriously bug infested, IMHO to some extent because of the > issue below. > Policy 11.2 says: > If a package wants to install an example entry into `/etc/inetd.conf', the > entry must be preceded with exactly one hash character (`#'). Such lines > are treated as "commented out by user" by the `update-inetd' script and > are not changed or activated during package updates. > [presumably, "not changed" here implies also "not deleted"] > Effectively this means that we cannot distinguish between two entirely > different things: local-admin-policy and examples generated by postinst > maintainer scripts. > Now how does this lead to bugs? Say I install ftp-daemon-a, which adds an > example entry to /etc/inetd.conf, and then I uninstall the package. The > example entry will survive the package's removal (even if prerm calls > update-inetd, it won't be removed because it's indistinguishable from > local-admin-policy). > Then I decide to install ftp-daemon-b. If the package's postinst calls > update-inetd to enable the new service, the new entry won't be added because > it's apparently local-admin-policy that ftp should be disabled. > A potential fix would be to prescribe that example entries added by maintainer > scripts are preceded with '#<example># ' (to be consistent with '#<off># ' > which is what update-inetd uses by default to denote disabled entries). I would suggest disallowing example entries altogether; let packages use the '#<off>#' syntax instead. Or is there some reason I'm missing why we would want to support so many different ways for packages to add lines to update-inetd? -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/ slanga...@ubuntu.com vor...@debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
