Package: developers-reference Version: 3.4.17 Severity: normal I have a package with a postrm script that has a line like
[ -x /usr/bin/ucf ] && ucf --purge /etc/default/gridengine which incurs the following lintian warning: W: gridengine-common: command-with-path-in-maintainer-script postrm:31 /usr/bin/ucf N: N: The indicated program run in a maintainer script has a prepended path. N: Programs called from maintainer scripts normally should not have a path N: prepended. dpkg ensures that the PATH is set to a reasonable value, and N: prepending a path may prevent the local administrator from using a N: replacement version of a command for some local reason. N: N: If the path is required to test a program for existence, one of the N: suggested workarounds in the developer's reference can be used. N: N: See particularly the function pathfind() in devref. N: N: Refer to Debian Policy Manual section 6.1 (Introduction to package N: maintainer scripts) and Debian Developer's Reference section 6.4 (Best N: practices for maintainer scripts) for details. N: N: Severity: normal, Certainty: certain N: N: Check: scripts, Type: binary However, in the developer's reference (section 6.4), we have: ~~~ If you need to check for the existence of a command, you should use something like if [ -x /usr/sbin/install-docs ]; then ... If you don't wish to hard-code the path of a command in your maintainer script,... ~~~ Given the lintian warning above, the first suggestion quoted here probably should not be made in the Developer's reference. Many thanks and regards Afif
