Debian Bug report logs - #422979
dpkg: update-alternatives doesn't create the symlink

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Vincent Fourmond <fourmond@debian.org>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: dpkg: update-alternatives doesn't create the symlink

Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 10:01:44 +0200

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.14.1
Severity: normal


  Hello,

  I've just updated gs-common which did swtch the handling of ps2pdf
to update-alternatives. 

  gs-comomn.postinst does include the following lines, called under
the configure target:

update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/ps2pdf \
  ps2pdf /usr/bin/ps2pdf14 50
update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/ps2pdf \
  ps2pdf /usr/bin/ps2pdf12 30
update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/ps2pdf \
  ps2pdf /usr/bin/ps2pdf13 40

  Everything looks fine and update-alternatives seems happy.

9:53 fv@Vncent ~ /usr/sbin/update-alternatives --display ps2pdf
ps2pdf - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/bin/ps2pdf14
/usr/bin/ps2pdf14 - priority 50
/usr/bin/ps2pdf12 - priority 30
/usr/bin/ps2pdf13 - priority 40
Current `best' version is /usr/bin/ps2pdf14.

  However, as it appears that update-alternatives did not create the
symlink /usr/bin/ps2pdf -> /etc/alternatives/ps2pdf during the process,
ps2pdf simply does not work. Is it a problem in the recent
update-alternatives, or did the gs-common maintainer make a mistake ?
I supposed the former as dpkg was upgraded at the same time as gs-common,
and I've seen package with a more crude use of update-alternative work
properly.

  This report is somehow similar to #100135, but in this case, it
renders parts of gs-common unusable, so I preferred submitting a new
report.

  I hope this helps, and that I don't bother you for another's mistake.

  Cheers,

      Vincent Fourmond

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.20-1-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages dpkg depends on:
ii  coreutils                     5.97-5.3   The GNU core utilities
ii  libc6                         2.5-7      GNU C Library: Shared libraries

dpkg recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information

Message #10 received at 422979@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Kel Modderman <kel@otaku42.de>

To: 422979@bugs.debian.org

Subject: confirmed: dpkg: update-alternatives doesn't create the symlink

Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 18:59:18 +1000

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.14.1

This seems to also be the case for locales installation after fresh 
debootstrap:

Preconfiguring packages ...
/tmp/locales.config.229891: line 26: awk: command not found
locales failed to preconfigure, with exit status 127
Selecting previously deselected package locales.
(Reading database ... 4837 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking locales (from .../archives/locales_2.5-7_all.deb) ...
Setting up locales (2.5-7) ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/locales.config: line 26: awk: command not found

Putting some code into script to check for /usr/bin/awk reveals that it surely 
does not exist. /etc/alternatives/awk does.

Thanks, Kel.

Message #15 received at 422979@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>

To: 422979@bugs.debian.org

Cc: control@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#422979: dpkg: update-alternatives doesn't create the symlink

Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 11:15:16 +0200

severity 422979 critical
stop

This appears to break pretty much any interesting package using alternatives.

Message #22 received at 422979@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Frank Küster <frank@kuesterei.ch>

To: 422979@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>

Subject: Re: Bug#422979: dpkg: update-alternatives doesn't create the symlink

Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 13:40:58 +0200

Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> wrote:

> severity 422979 critical
> stop
>
> This appears to break pretty much any interesting package using alternatives.

Including fakeroot and therefore pbuilder which uses it.  In other
words, building in a chroot with the standard setup used by probably
most developers is now impossible.

Regards, Frank
-- 
Dr. Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)

Message #27 received at 422979@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>

To: 422979@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#422979: dpkg: update-alternatives doesn't create the symlink

Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 09:34:38 -0500

Hi,

        It is not just fakeroot.  debootstrap itself is broken, so you
 can't even get a new root file system.  debootstrap fails at:
,----
| I: Configuring base-files...
| I: Configuring libblkid1...
| I: Configuring e2fsprogs...
| I: Configuring gzip...
| I: Configuring dpkg...
| I: Configuring dselect...
| I: Configuring sysvinit-utils...
| I: Configuring login...
| I: Configuring lsb-base...
| I: Configuring procps...
| I: Configuring mount...
| I: Configuring passwd...
| I: Configuring initscripts...
| I: Configuring base-files...
| I: Configuring base-files...
| W: Failure while configuring required packages.
`----

        chrooting into the dir, the error is that base-files postinst
 cannot find awk. mawk had indeed been configured earlier. So, while
 /etc/alternatives/awk exists, and points to mawk, there is no symlink
 /usr/bin/awk created.

        manoj
-- 
Boy!  Eucalyptus!
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B  924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C

Message #32 received at 422979-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>

To: 422979-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#422979: fixed in dpkg 1.14.2

Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 19:47:04 +0000

Source: dpkg
Source-Version: 1.14.2

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
dpkg, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

dpkg-dev_1.14.2_all.deb
  to pool/main/d/dpkg/dpkg-dev_1.14.2_all.deb
dpkg_1.14.2.dsc
  to pool/main/d/dpkg/dpkg_1.14.2.dsc
dpkg_1.14.2.tar.gz
  to pool/main/d/dpkg/dpkg_1.14.2.tar.gz
dpkg_1.14.2_i386.deb
  to pool/main/d/dpkg/dpkg_1.14.2_i386.deb
dselect_1.14.2_i386.deb
  to pool/main/d/dpkg/dselect_1.14.2_i386.deb



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 422979@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org> (supplier of updated dpkg package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Format: 1.7
Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 22:22:45 +0300
Source: dpkg
Binary: dpkg dselect dpkg-dev
Architecture: source i386 all
Version: 1.14.2
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Dpkg Developers <team@dpkg.org>
Changed-By: Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>
Description: 
 dpkg       - package maintenance system for Debian
 dpkg-dev   - package building tools for Debian
 dselect    - user tool to manage Debian packages
Closes: 260987 353252 361866 367717 392431 422239 422979 423029 423085
Changes: 
 dpkg (1.14.2) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   [ Guillem Jover ]
   * Remove bashisms in dpkg-buildpackage. Closes: #422239
   * Handle case in update-alternatives when there's no existing alternative
     to configure. Closes: #260987, #353252, #367717, #392431
   * Add solaris support to ostable and triplettable. Closes: #361866
   * Properly create the generic name symlink in update-alternatives for new
     alternatives. Closes: #422979
   * Include translations again, which disappeared due to a dirty source tree
     and a bogus Makefile.am for the man pages. Closes: #423029, #423085
Files: 
 45c958034225fa96d3fa43e23d955ece 851 admin required dpkg_1.14.2.dsc
 4010bcf62dd44c3a7a55fbeeb4acaf33 5701782 admin required dpkg_1.14.2.tar.gz
 68eaf1356e51aa6bb55261bfd95b5ca1 2032018 admin required dpkg_1.14.2_i386.deb
 ad59027701b9136bd7afb76493bb5b1f 485754 admin required dselect_1.14.2_i386.deb
 16c129453d3f34a720736fcf796444e5 145940 utils optional dpkg-dev_1.14.2_all.deb

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Message #37 received at 422979@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>

To: 422979@bugs.debian.org

Subject: how to recover from this bug

Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 21:05:15 -0300

After upgrading to a non-broken dpkg, do this:

update-alternatives --all

And hold enter down until it goes over the entire list.

Shouldn't the dpkg package provide a script that does this without asking
the user?

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh

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