Debian Bug report logs - #21884
libc6-dev: relative links between top-level dirs

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

From: Yann Dirson <ydirson@a2points.com>

To: Debian bug-system submission <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: libc6-dev: relative links between top-level dirs

Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 16:07:44 +0200 (CEST)

Package: libc6-dev
Version: 2.0.7pre1-4
Severity: important

Many symlinks from /usr/lib/ to /lib/ are relative.  This may break
installations where /usr/ is on a mounted partition.

From upgrading-checklist.text.gz:

    - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
      + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
        symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
        (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)

-- 
Yann Dirson  <ydirson@a2points.com>      | Stop making M$-Bill richer & richer,
alt-email:     <dirson@univ-mlv.fr>      |     support Debian GNU/Linux:
debian-email:   <dirson@debian.org>      |         more powerful, more stable !
http://www.a2points.com/homepage/3475232 | Check <http://www.debian.org/>

Message #10 received at 21884@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Yann Dirson <ydirson@mygale.org>

To: Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>

Cc: 21884@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Debian bugs information: logs for bug#21884 (fwd)

Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 22:07:35 +0200 (CEST)

Dale Scheetz writes:
 > I have been trying to come to terms with the "relelease critical" bugs and
 > this one is on the list.
 >
 > Can you explain this problem to me in more detail? It isn't clear from
 > your statements what I should do about this?

As many installations use symlinks to dirs in other partitions for
so-called "top-level dirs" (ie. IIRC /usr/, /var/, and I'll probably
add /usr/X11R6/, /usr/local/ and such).

Such a layout may cause problems if any symlink is trying to traverse
such a dir (using ..).  Eg, on my system, /usr/ is a link to
/disc2/usr/; so when say /usr/foo is a symlink to ../foo, it is
usually expected to point to /foo, whereas on my system it refers to
/disc2/foo.

Such issues dictate § 3.3.5, which tells that when you have such links
they should be absolute, which eliminates the problem.  In this case,
I think I remember that most of the symlinks from /usr/lib/ into /lib/
were relative, which broke.

 > I am not sure what links you are speaking about, nor what should be done
 > to repair the problem.

Just use absolute symlinks.

Regards,
--
Yann Dirson    <ydirson@mygale.org> | Stop making M$-Bill richer & richer,
isp-email:   <ydirson@a2points.com> |     support Debian GNU/Linux:
debian-email:   <dirson@debian.org> |         more powerful, more stable !
http://www.mygale.org/~ydirson/     | Check <http://www.debian.org/>

Message #15 received at 21884@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>

To: Yann Dirson <ydirson@mygale.org>

Cc: 21884@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Debian bugs information: logs for bug#21884 (fwd)

Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 16:56:30 -0400 (EDT)

On Mon, 15 Jun 1998, Yann Dirson wrote:

> Dale Scheetz writes:
>  > I have been trying to come to terms with the "relelease critical" bugs and
>  > this one is on the list.
>  >
>  > Can you explain this problem to me in more detail? It isn't clear from
>  > your statements what I should do about this?
> 
> As many installations use symlinks to dirs in other partitions for
> so-called "top-level dirs" (ie. IIRC /usr/, /var/, and I'll probably
> add /usr/X11R6/, /usr/local/ and such).
> 
> Such a layout may cause problems if any symlink is trying to traverse
> such a dir (using ..).  Eg, on my system, /usr/ is a link to
> /disc2/usr/; so when say /usr/foo is a symlink to ../foo, it is
> usually expected to point to /foo, whereas on my system it refers to
> /disc2/foo.
> 
> Such issues dictate § 3.3.5, which tells that when you have such links
> they should be absolute, which eliminates the problem.  In this case,
> I think I remember that most of the symlinks from /usr/lib/ into /lib/
> were relative, which broke.
> 
>  > I am not sure what links you are speaking about, nor what should be done
>  > to repair the problem.
> 
> Just use absolute symlinks.
> 
OK, I see what you are talking about now. These symlinks are created by
the glibc make files. As a result I will need to generate a hack to fix
the links before the package gets built. Any idea how to traverse the
directory, removing the ../.. from the link? I guess I just need to use
find to generate a list of links and targets, remove the old links and
create the new correct ones from the list. Any ideas for a less "brute
force" method?

Thanks for all the help,

Dwarf
--
_-_-_-_-_-   Author of "The Debian Linux User's Guide"  _-_-_-_-_-_-

aka   Dale Scheetz                   Phone:   1 (850) 656-9769
      Flexible Software              11000 McCrackin Road
      e-mail:  dwarf@polaris.net     Tallahassee, FL  32308

_-_-_-_-_-_- If you don't see what you want, just ask _-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Message #20 received at 21884@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Yann Dirson <ydirson@mygale.org>

To: Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>

Cc: 21884@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Debian bugs information: logs for bug#21884 (fwd)

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 00:58:21 +0200 (CEST)

Dale Scheetz writes:
 > Any idea how to traverse the
 > directory, removing the ../.. from the link? I guess I just need to use
 > find to generate a list of links and targets, remove the old links and
 > create the new correct ones from the list. Any ideas for a less "brute
 > force" method?

Hm, I'm afraid not.  I thought about /usr/bin/symlinks, but this guy
only does the inverse conversion - presumably its author does not know
abuot this type of problem...  I guess `find' is the way to go...

Regards,
-- 
Yann Dirson    <ydirson@mygale.org> | Stop making M$-Bill richer & richer,
isp-email:   <ydirson@a2points.com> |     support Debian GNU/Linux:
debian-email:   <dirson@debian.org> |         more powerful, more stable !
http://www.mygale.org/~ydirson/     | Check <http://www.debian.org/>

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