Bug#884747: fails to start when .config is a symlink, with misleading error message about permissions

[Rene Engelhard <rene@debian.org>]

tag 884747 + moreinfo
tag 884747 + unreproducible
thanks

Hi,

On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 10:56:04PM -0400, Joey Hess wrote:
> My .config is a symlink to .etc/.config. The files in .etc/.config/libreoffice
> were created by the same libreoffice process that then displayed that
> error dialog. There are no permissions problems.
> 
> joey@darkstar:~>ls -ld .config .etc .etc/.config .etc/.config/libreoffice .etc/.config/libreoffice/4
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 joey joey   12 Dec 18 22:33 .config -> .etc/.config/
> drwxr-xr-x 10 joey joey 4096 Dec 11 11:50 .etc/
> drwx------ 70 joey joey 4096 Dec 18 22:50 .etc/.config/
> drwxr-xr-x  3 joey joey 4096 Dec 18 22:50 .etc/.config/libreoffice/
> drwx------  3 joey joey 4096 Dec 18 22:50 .etc/.config/libreoffice/4/
> 
> joey@darkstar:~>tree -pld .etc/.config/libreoffice
> .etc/.config/libreoffice
> └── [drwx------]  4
>     └── [drwxr-xr-x]  user
>         ├── [drwxr-xr-x]  autotext
>         ├── [drwxr-xr-x]  config
>         └── [drwxr-xr-x]  extensions
> 
> Libreoffice appears to be doing some kind of permissions check that
> doesn't handle symlinks correctly. I had to replace the .config
> symlink with .etc/.config temporariy to edit a document.

Quick chat with upstream:

10:13 < _rene_> who feels responsible for user profile access problems? :)
                sberg?
10:14 <@sberg> _rene_, whatever "user profile access problems" are
10:14 -!- iplaw67 [~Thunderbi@19.157.73.178.dynamic.sat.abo.nordnet.fr] has
          quit [Quit: iplaw67]
10:14 < _rene_> sberg: http://bugs.debian.org/884747
10:16 <@sberg> _rene_, IIRC, the "LibreOffice user installation could not be
               processed due to missing access rights." could also be printed
               if the actual problem wasn't access rights, at least in the
               past; not sure if that's relevant herer
10:17 <@sberg> _rene_, i.e., can you reproduce the problem?
10:17 < _rene_> didn't try yet, just saw the mail this morning
10:17 <@kendy> vmiklos: So my error is:
10:17 <@kendy>  /local/libreoffice/master/new:1424:26: error: stray ‘#’ in
               program
10:17 <@kendy>       <DomainMapper.data>&#13;</DomainMapper.data>
10:18 <@vmiklos> ooh
10:18 <@vmiklos> kendy: you have a /local/libreoffice/master/new file
10:18 -!- Ringding [~sr@1360030026.d-dsl.at] has joined #libreoffice-dev
10:18 <@vmiklos> you probably want to remove that. g++ picks that up as the
                 standard c++ <new> header i guess :)
10:19 < _rene_> sberg: after mkdir .etc && mv .config/ .etc && ln -s
                .etc/.config/ it still works, so no
10:19 <@kendy> vmiklos: Haha - right
10:19 <@vmiklos> kendy: i did the same mistake in the past with the "list"
                 header
10:20 <@sberg> _rene_, ...which makes it likely that the actual problem is
               something else; maybe strace, LD_DEBUG etc. could help
10:20 < _rene_> sberg: will ask him..

rene@pc15:~$ mkdir .etc
rene@pc15:~$ mv .config/ .etc
rene@pc15:~$ ln -s .etc/.config/
rene@pc15:~$ ls -l .config
lrwxrwxrwx 1 rene rene 13 Dez 19 10:18 .config -> .etc/.config/
rene@pc15:~$ lowriter 

starts fine for me..

(with
ii  libreoffice-core         1:5.4.3-4~bpo9+2  amd64             office productivity suite -- arch-dependent files
though.)

Regards,

Rene