[Pkg-mailman-hackers] Re: mailman update deletes /var/lib/ symlinks

Bernd S. Brentrup bsb@debian.org
Mon, 23 Feb 2004 02:27:19 +0100


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Package: mailman
Version: 2.0.11-1woody8
Severity: normal
Followup-For: Bug #234187


On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 14:43:43 +0100 Ben Bucksch <linux.news@bucksch.org> wro=
te:

> I have my mailman data at another place in the filesystem, not in
> /var/lib/, and /var/lib/mailman/ is a symlink to that other dir.
> However, the relative symlinks for locks -> ../../lock/mailman/ and logs
> (similar) then don't work anymore, so I changed them to absolute paths.

Symlinks are not well suited for relocating whole file trees at once
(usually in an attempt to overcome space constraints).

> The problem is: after a package update (apt-get dist-upgrade, e.g. now
> with the security update), I find the symlinks to be relative again, so
> it seems that the package installation scripts remove and re-create my
> symlinks.  They should not do that.=20

I disagree, it breaks due to a misconfiguration on your side (but see below=
).

> The symlinks end up being broken, and the cron script breaks.

> Because of that, I get an email (see below) *every minute* that the
> config is broken. Guess how many that are over a weekend or even a
> vacation. That could probably be a bug in itself, for |cron|.

So you might have noticed a minute after the upgrade (not the update)
was complete, please check admin mailboxes regularly.

You didn't tell which kernel you are running, please use a tool like
reportbug (which I use to write this followup) next time you submit a
bugreport, it automatically inserts relevant information.

Provided you're running a 2.4 or better kernel and your mount command suppo=
rts
it, use mount --bind after copying the whole /var/lib/mailman tree.

For older kernels use an additional level of indirection (and more symlinks=
):

 d /var/lib/mailman
 l   .LINK    -> /ample/space
 l   Mailman  -> .LINK/Mailman
 l   archives -> .LINK/archives
 l   bin      -> .LINK/bin
 ...
 l   locks    -> ../../lock/mailman
 l   logs     -> ../../log/mailman


I'm closing this bug.

Thanks
=2E Siggy

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux puntila 2.6.3-vaio #1 Sat Feb 21 22:53:46 CET 2004 i686
Locale: LANG=3DC, LC_CTYPE=3DC

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