Debian Bug report logs - #904366
mailutils-config and the mailutils tool are unusable in 1:3.4-1

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

From: Sergey Poznyakoff <gray@gnu.org>

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

Subject: mailutils-config and the mailutils tool are unusable in 1:3.4-1

Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2018 17:26:45 +0300

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Package: libmailutils-dev
Version: 1:3.4-1
Severity: serious

Hello,

Invoking mailutils-config with any argument results in:

$ mailutils-config --info
/usr/bin/mailutils-config: 115: /usr/bin/mailutils-config: mailutils: not found

This script is in fact a wrapper around the 'mailutils' tool, but the
tool itself is included in another packet, mailutils. Now, installing
mailutils doesn't make the situation any better:

$ mailutils-config --info
mailutils: don't know what info is

This is because the mailutils tool is a dispatcher command that calls
one of the specific standalone binaries from the pkglibexecdir to
perform the requested action (see the commit 444d20f3,
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/mailutils.git/commit/?id=444d20f3c).
Now, none of these binaries is included in the package (nor in any other
sub-package of mailutils, for that matter).

The script mailutils-config is used by the AM_MAILUTILS macro, defined in
/usr/share/aclocal/mailutils.m4. This means that this bug makes it
impossible to build any projects that depend on Mailutils and use this
macro in configure.ac to detect its presence. Therefore I qualified it
as serious.

To fix this, I would suggest to move usr/bin/mailutils from package
'mailutils' to 'libmailutils-dev' and to add all mailutils-*
binaries from the pkglibexecdir directory. The proposed patch is
attached.

The patch fixes the reported bug, yet reveals another (minor)
one. Please note the 'usr/lib/mailutils/mailutils/' path in the resulting
libmailutils-dev.install file. This is because
/usr/share/cdbs/1/class/autotools-vars.mk from cdbs sets the
DEB_CONFIGURE_LIBEXECDIR variable to "\$${prefix}/lib/$(DEB_SOURCE_PACKAGE)",
thereby defeating the purpose of libexecdir, for which GNU standards say
that this is

  [t]he directory for installing executable programs to be run by other
  programs rather than by users. 
  [...]
  The definition of 'libexecdir' is the same for all packages

This looks like yet another instance of the bug fixed long ago in debhelper:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=541458. Perhaps it's
worth reporting to cdbs hackers. Anyway, adding

   DEB_CONFIGURE_LIBEXECDIR = \$${prefix}/lib

to the debian/rules will fix this as well (obviously the paths in the
attached file should be changed accordingly).

Best regards,
Sergey

[debian.diff (text/x-diff, inline)]

diff -pur debian-orig/libmailutils-dev.install debian/libmailutils-dev.install
--- debian-orig/libmailutils-dev.install	2018-07-23 13:54:47.755922366 +0000
+++ debian/libmailutils-dev.install	2018-07-23 13:58:06.908660263 +0000
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 usr/bin/mailutils-config
+usr/bin/mailutils
+usr/lib/mailutils/mailutils/mailutils-*
 usr/include/mailutils/*
 usr/lib/*/lib*.so
 usr/share/aclocal/mailutils.m4
diff -pur debian-orig/mailutils.install debian/mailutils.install
--- debian-orig/mailutils.install	2018-07-23 13:54:47.758922443 +0000
+++ debian/mailutils.install	2018-07-23 13:58:44.483808011 +0000
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 usr/bin/dotlock.mailutils
 usr/bin/frm.mailutils
 usr/bin/from.mailutils
-usr/bin/mailutils
 usr/bin/mail.mailutils
 usr/bin/messages.mailutils
 usr/bin/mimeview

[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]

Message #18 received at 904366-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org>

To: 904366-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#904366: fixed in mailutils 1:3.4-2

Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2018 23:52:36 +0000

Source: mailutils
Source-Version: 1:3.4-2

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

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 904366@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org> (supplier of updated mailutils 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@ftp-master.debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

Format: 1.8
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2018 01:37:28 +0200
Source: mailutils
Binary: libmailutils5 libmailutils-dev mailutils mailutils-common mailutils-imap4d mailutils-pop3d mailutils-comsatd mailutils-guile mailutils-mh python-mailutils mailutils-doc
Architecture: source
Version: 1:3.4-2
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org>
Changed-By: Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org>
Description:
 libmailutils-dev - Development files for GNU mailutils
 libmailutils5 - GNU Mail abstraction library
 mailutils  - GNU mailutils utilities for handling mail
 mailutils-common - Common files for GNU mailutils
 mailutils-comsatd - GNU mailutils-based comsatd daemon
 mailutils-doc - Documentation files for GNU mailutils
 mailutils-guile - GNU mailutils Guile interpreter and modules
 mailutils-imap4d - GNU mailutils-based IMAP4 Daemon
 mailutils-mh - GNU mailutils-based MH utilities
 mailutils-pop3d - GNU mailutils-based POP3 Daemon
 python-mailutils - GNU Mail abstraction library (Python interface)
Closes: 904366
Changes:
 mailutils (1:3.4-2) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Update Vcs-* fields for migration to salsa.debian.org.
   * Set libexecdir to ${prefix}/lib/$(DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH).
   * Move mailutils binary to libmailutils-dev and install auxiliary
     mailutils binaries from libexecdir. Thanks to Sergey Poznyakoff for
     the detailed bug report and suggested fix (closes: #904366).
   * Add Breaks/Replaces to handle libmailutils-dev upgrades.
   * Set Rules-Requires-Root to no.
   * Update Standards-Version to 4.2.1.
Checksums-Sha1:
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 76ec528a16a188943c755a4660a87d63f00800b0 29008 mailutils_3.4-2.debian.tar.xz
 d6aaac1effa7b2eea06e8b244973114f49763517 7788 mailutils_3.4-2_source.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
 68ae11a3475bebe1ce6adbe5c8758ec3da3a0c8f61c62027a399d68113961e9c 3087 mailutils_3.4-2.dsc
 073e5d9bd4d492aa1f49ba6990b8aef6bbfec08558d52e196748a39bb90c585b 29008 mailutils_3.4-2.debian.tar.xz
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Files:
 d55dea8134826fc2b3648d065c1a4f72 3087 mail optional mailutils_3.4-2.dsc
 160aeb98b32d03ecba9515ccd20e9c20 29008 mail optional mailutils_3.4-2.debian.tar.xz
 8fc31970800e402f29dddb8e30c1292d 7788 mail optional mailutils_3.4-2_source.buildinfo

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