[xml/sgml-pkgs] Bug#477751: tackling this bug

[Joey Hess]

Helmut Grohne wrote:
>  * preinst will do the tricky transition part. If it is called during an
>    upgrade and /etc/sgml/$package.cat is not owned by any package (this
>    is currently the case), then it fixes up the installation. The old
>    prerm will have the package catalog removed from the root catalog, so
>    it is readded here. The old postinst would recreate
>    /etc/sgml/$package.cat. This file is removed during preinst. The
>    advantage of this approach is that the conffile can be installed
>    without asking the user. The disadvantage of this approach is that
>    we are overwriting user changes one more time.

I don't think it's appropriate to put "tricky transition" code into
debhelper autoscripts, from where it is exploded out to lots of
packages. If it's tricky, it's going to break, and it needs to be in a
centralized location so the breakage can be fixed with one upload.

Also, it's quite likely that other packages also use update-catalog,
without using dh_installcatalogs. So this should be fixed in
update-catalog.

>  There is a debhelper.debdiff attached which implements the above
> description. I have rebuild xml-core using this patched debhelper and
> tried to upgrade and reinstall xml-core. However downgrading xml-core
> and upgrading it again results in a broken installation. Even when
> downgrading a package a conffile stays to be a conffile, so the preinst
> hook is only executed during the first upgrade. After the second upgrade
> the /etc/sgml/$package.cat is left untouched (being a conffile) and
> missing from /etc/sgml/catalog.

It's not clear to me if this is a serious problem with this approach or
not. I will let the maintainer of update-catalog deside when
implementing their solution.

-- 
see shy jo
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 828 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debian-xml-sgml-pkgs/attachments/20120107/cf8ec9c6/attachment.pgp>