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Author Bug in description of menu or bug in lintian: executable-in-usr-lib-menu
Andreas Tille

2004-06-14, 5:53 pm

Hello,

I'm preparing new cdd-Packages and faced a new lintian error message:

E: cdd-common: executable-in-usr-lib-menu usr/lib/menu/cdd-menu 0755

I think it is lintian bug.

The doc in /usr/share/doc/menu/menu.txt.gz says something about
non executables in the packages and making them executable in the
postinst - but this seems to be stupid.

The maintainer of menu told Cosimo Alfarano to use this executable
srcipt to accomplish a certain goal (it should only do something if
a *user* calls update-menus, not if root calls it). For this reason
update-menus is neither called in postinst nor postrm by intention
which can be fixed by lintian.overrides. But in the case above I
see no reason in providing a non executable and make it executable
in the postinst. Any reason for that?

Kind regards

Andreas.


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Jeroen van Wolffelaar

2004-06-14, 5:53 pm

On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 09:53:43AM +0200, Andreas Tille wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm preparing new cdd-Packages and faced a new lintian error message:
>
> E: cdd-common: executable-in-usr-lib-menu usr/lib/menu/cdd-menu 0755
>
> I think it is lintian bug.


Then, if I may ask, why are you mailing to debian-devel?

--Jeroen

--
Jeroen van Wolffelaar
Jeroen@wolffelaar.nl (also for Jabber & MSN; ICQ: 33944357)
http://Jeroen.A-Eskwadraat.nl


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Andreas Tille

2004-06-14, 5:53 pm

On Mon, 14 Jun 2004, Jeroen van Wolffelaar wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 09:53:43AM +0200, Andreas Tille wrote:
>
> Then, if I may ask, why are you mailing to debian-devel?

If you read the rest of my mail or the subject you might notice that I'm
unsure whether this is a bug in the documentation of the menu package
which conflicts to the advise of the author of menu. I just want to make
sure what is the intention before filing stupid bugs.

Kind regards

Andreas.


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Bill Allombert

2004-06-14, 5:53 pm

On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 09:53:43AM +0200, Andreas Tille wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm preparing new cdd-Packages and faced a new lintian error message:
>
> E: cdd-common: executable-in-usr-lib-menu usr/lib/menu/cdd-menu 0755
>
> I think it is lintian bug.


99.9% [1] of files in usr-lib-menu should not be executable, so it is
reasonnable for lintian to issue a warning. However it is labelled as an
error (E here which is not in accordance with lintian definition of E:,
it should be W:.

> The doc in /usr/share/doc/menu/menu.txt.gz says something about
> non executables in the packages and making them executable in the
> postinst - but this seems to be stupid.


The menu manual say that menu-methods scripts should be non-executable
and made executable in the postinst.

However files in /usr/lib/menu are not menu-methods but menu files
and should not be handed this way.

> The maintainer of menu told Cosimo Alfarano to use this executable
> srcipt to accomplish a certain goal (it should only do something if
> a *user* calls update-menus, not if root calls it). For this reason
> update-menus is neither called in postinst nor postrm by intention
> which can be fixed by lintian.overrides. But in the case above I
> see no reason in providing a non executable and make it executable
> in the postinst. Any reason for that?


For executables menu entries files, you must put them executable in the
..deb and do not mess with the x bit in postinst. Else update-menus could
choke while trying to parse the file if the installation abort.

I hope that clear your concerns,

Cheers,
--
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.

[1] This statistic was not made on the spot. Indeed you can check for
yourself at http://people.Debian.org/~ballombe/menu/menufiles.tgz that
only 1 over 1500 need the x bit.


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Andreas Tille

2004-06-14, 5:54 pm

On Mon, 14 Jun 2004, Bill Allombert wrote:

> 99.9% [1] of files in usr-lib-menu should not be executable, so it is
> reasonnable for lintian to issue a warning. However it is labelled as an
> error (E here which is not in accordance with lintian definition of E:,
> it should be W:.

OK, this was one option for me to file a bug report.

> The menu manual say that menu-methods scripts should be non-executable
> and made executable in the postinst.
>
> However files in /usr/lib/menu are not menu-methods but menu files
> and should not be handed this way.

Ahhh, thanks for this clarification

> For executables menu entries files, you must put them executable in the
> .deb and do not mess with the x bit in postinst. Else update-menus could
> choke while trying to parse the file if the installation abort.
>
> I hope that clear your concerns,

OK, so what I have to do is:
1. File a bug report against lintian to s/^E:/^W:/.
2. Use /usr/share/lintian/override/cdd-common to hide the warning
because it is exactly what I intended.

Right?

BTW, what do you think about the fact that lintian also regards

post{inst,rm}-does-not-call-updatemenus

as an "Error"? IMHO it should also be a "Warning" (and yes, I will hide
it also by overrides).

Kind regards

Andreas.


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Bill Allombert

2004-06-14, 5:54 pm

On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 06:53:19PM +0200, Andreas Tille wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Jun 2004, Bill Allombert wrote:
>
> OK, so what I have to do is:
> 1. File a bug report against lintian to s/^E:/^W:/.
> 2. Use /usr/share/lintian/override/cdd-common to hide the warning
> because it is exactly what I intended.
>
> Right?


Yes, if you feel lintian-pedantic.

> BTW, what do you think about the fact that lintian also regards
>
> post{inst,rm}-does-not-call-updatemenus


> as an "Error"? IMHO it should also be a "Warning" (and yes, I will hide
> it also by overrides).


[I will assume your executable menu file generate no output when run as
root, else you must call updatemenus in post{inst,rm}]

Frankly, I think differently. Calling update-menus in post{inst,rm}
in your case do no harm, and a menu file that create no menu entry when
run as root is so much a oddball case that I think that deserve a E:.

In fact, even in your case, I would advise you to call update-menus
since you need to test what happen if the package is installed at the
same time as another package calling update-menus anyway and that would
also prevent future mistake.

Cheers,
--
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.


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Andreas Tille

2004-06-15, 5:54 pm

On Mon, 14 Jun 2004, Bill Allombert wrote:

>
>
> [I will assume your executable menu file generate no output when run as
> root, else you must call updatemenus in post{inst,rm}]

The relevant portion says:

CDDUSER=`whoami`

# it has to be run only by unprivileged users via update-menus
test "${CDDUSER}" == "root" && exit 0

> Frankly, I think differently. Calling update-menus in post{inst,rm}
> in your case do no harm,

Well it does not harm, but I would regard it stupid to call a script just
because lintian wants me to do it. I prefer the lintian.override here.

> and a menu file that create no menu entry when
> run as root is so much a oddball case that I think that deserve a E:.

OK. If you think so it is fine for me. I was just asking because you
voted for a change in the other case.

> In fact, even in your case, I would advise you to call update-menus
> since you need to test what happen if the package is installed at the
> same time as another package calling update-menus anyway and that would
> also prevent future mistake.

In how far? I think the snipped above is clear enough that there
should occure no conflicts with other packages.

Kind regards

Andreas.


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