Package: dpkg Version: Every one since time began Sorry to send this to so many but I feel it is both important and urgent and no-one seems to be addressing it; I have had no reply from the advertised maintainer of dpkg to the message below, so I'm now forwarding it to a wider audience. Since I'm not (yet) a registered Debian developer it actually makes no sense for me to get involved in fixing install-info when there must surely be hundreds of people already in who could do it if someone would just stress the importance of doing it. I hope to provide such stress ;)
install-info is broken. You know it's broken, several million bug reports testify to the fact, but they have never been assigned the priority they deserve, and never had anything done about them. Fact: lots, probably hundreds of Debian packages use install-info. Fact: The brokenness of install-info can prevent the successful installation of these packages. Fact: This can severely, I would say CRITICALLY impede both installations and upgrades to any Debian system. It's at least as critical as a major bug in dpkg itself. I can't believe everyone is so busy that they can't find the time to at least paper over the cracks in install-info (better locking, tidy up if dying unexpectedly, able to make a simple /usr/info/dir if one doesn't exist and there's no backup) BEFORE potato makes stable. Here is the original mail I sent to the dpkg maintainer: Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 14:32:50 +0000 From: Jammin Wheeler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Status of install-info I'm sending you this directly rather than to the bugs submission list because I am concerned that it needs to be fixed promptly before potato is released and I don't think the bugs list has given it enough priority. I'm also offering directly to help with it. install-info is broken, badly, and because so many packages use it and its brokenness can and does prevent their successful installation I believe it should be absolute top priority. Many different bugs occur due to its brokenness. The most frequently reported are that it cannot cope if /usr/info/dir is missing or doesn't contain what it should. There are others, like this: Can't "last" outside a block at /usr/sbin/install-info line 229. which causes it to bail out leaving dir.lock and thus preventing any more successful usage. It is also capable of leaving dir itself in a broken or unusable state. All these problems need to be addressed as a whole, and as a whole they add up to a Critical in my book. Despite ever ascending version numbers, no-one seems to have started addressing the problems. If you find you have inadequate time to do so, I am offering to do so during the coming week. Please let me know if I can help in any way. I am extremely keen to get this fixed, because until it is Debian as a whole looks broken and I can't persuade my work colleagues to switch over from the dreaded Redhat... -- Ben/Jammin Wheeler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> a perl CGI script using DNA spoofing to masquerade as a unix sysadmin ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Jammin Wheeler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> a perl CGI script using DNA spoofing to masquerade as a unix sysadmin
