[Mageia-dev] Over-zealous rpmlint policy (rejecting rt)

Thu Jan 12 20:28:31 CET 2012

Le jeudi 12 janvier 2012 à 11:12 +0200, Buchan Milne a écrit :
+> I am trying to get rt (3.8.11) into the distro (a package that I am using on a 
+> different distro in a production environment), to be followed up with the rt 
+> (4.0.4) I have queued (which I am testing in preparation for upgrading our 
+> production environment).
+> 
+> I would really like to get this package into the distro, but it is being 
+> rejected 
+> (http://pkgsubmit.mageia.org/uploads/rejected//cauldron/core/release/20120110140334.buchan.valstar.18287.youri) 
+> due to:
+> 
+> Submission errors, aborting:
+> - rt-3.8.11-1.mga2.noarch:
+>  - dir-or-file-in-usr-local /usr/local/lib/rt/plugins
+>  - dir-or-file-in-usr-local /usr/local/lib/rt
+>  - dir-or-file-in-usr-local /usr/local/lib/rt/po
+>  - dir-or-file-in-usr-local /usr/local/lib/rt/lib
+>  - dir-or-file-in-usr-local /usr/local/etc/rt
+>  - dir-or-file-in-usr-local /usr/local/lib/rt/html
+> 
+> The documented way for extending RT is by installing files in this location. 
+> We can either:
+> 1)Make it more difficult for users to extend RT with local plugins etc.
+> 2)Fix rpmlint
+> 3)Not have RT
+> 
+> misc, you have experience of both rt and rpmlint, can you provide an opinion?
+>
+> Would it be possible to separate 'dir-or-file-usr-local' into separate rules 
+> (one for files, one for dirs)? While I agree we shouldn't ship files in 
+> /usr/local, I don't see why we shouldn't ship dirs in /usr/local ...
+
+We shouldn't ship directories for the same reason that we shouldn't ship
+file, ie FHS.
+
+See :
+http://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_2.3/fhs-2.3.html#USRLOCALLOCALHIERARCHY
+
+More specifically :
+"It needs to be safe from being overwritten when the system software is
+updated."
+
+So the question is whether someone who change directory permissions will
+see them overwritten or not when the software is updated, and wether
+that a FHS violation.
+
+Afaik, rpm would reset the permission ( the same goes for removal of the
+directory ). 
+
+See also :
+"No other directories, except those listed below, may be in /usr/local
+after first installing a FHS-compliant system."
+
+Again, that's not clear if we can modify it later or not ( ie, is
+instaling rt on installation part of "first installing" or not ).
+
+I guess we should get a opinion from FHS/LSB people on this.
+
+In the mean time, I guess the point 1 is the easiest way, it can be
+changed later once we clarified FHS (or if we decide that we do not care
+about following standards, but that's really something I would like to
+avoid ). 
+
+-- 
+Michael Scherer
+
+