Brian Murray writes ("environment for maintainer scripts"):
> In Ubuntu we have recently had reports[1] where users were unable to
> upgrade python packages because they had installed a version of
> python in /usr/local/bin which did not provide the expected
> functions. While we worked around this by using the complete path to
> python in its postinst scripts this is not an ideal solution because
> this issue certainly does not just affect python. Additionally, the
> python maintainer in Ubuntu is concerned that this workaround is a
> violation of the Debian Policy[2] regarding maintainer scripts -
> "Programs called from maintainer scripts should not normally have a
> path prepended to them".That workaround is indeed such a violation (if you consider Debian Policy to be applicable to Ubuntu). IMO the correct workaround is to automatically close bug reports of this form with a polite message indicating that the user is in error. > This issue of having a clean environment for maintainer scripts was > previously raised[3] in 2002 and on debian-devel mailing list[4], at > that time there was an argument that "the system adminstrator may > prefer using a 3rd party version of adduser". And I am such an administrator. > While that is true I > think the technical savvy of users of dpkg has changed since then > and peferring a 3rd party version of a utility is now the less > likely case. Subsequently, we could prevent users a lot of pain by > providing a clean environment for maintainer scripts. > > Would it be possible to remove /usr/local/bin from $PATH when package > operations are being performed by dpkg? I think this proposal should be discussed in (or in conjunction with) debian-policy (CC'd). Personally I think such a change to set a fixed the environment could be beneficial but we need to think carefully about the right layer to do it. Perhaps it should be done by apt, or a GUI package manager, rather than dpkg. And there has to be a way to disable it. Thanks, Ian. -- Ian Jackson <[email protected]> These opinions are my own. If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.
