Bug 285808 – sci-chemistry/gromacs-4.0.5 fails to install because of readonly variable T

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED INVALID

[Description Juergen Rose 2009-09-21 06:49:20 UTC]

'emerge gromacs' fails with:
...
--- replaced obj /etc/env.d/80gromacs
--- replaced dir /etc/env.d
--- replaced dir /etc
>>> Regenerating /etc/ld.so.cache...
>>> Original instance of package unmerged safely.
>>> Regenerating /etc/ld.so.cache...
##############################################################
99servers.sh:  CUR_RUNLEVEL=|3| PREV_RUNLEVEL=|N|
##############################################################
/etc/profile.d/tetex.sh: line 5: T: readonly variable
 * The ebuild phase 'postinst' has exited unexpectedly. This type of
 * behavior is known to be triggered by things such as failed variable
 * assignments (bug #190128) or bad substitution errors (bug #200313).
 * Normally, before exiting, bash should have displayed an error message
 * above. If bash did not produce an error message above, it's possible
 * that the ebuild has called `exit` when it should have called `die`
 * instead. This behavior may also be triggered by a corrupt bash binary or
 * a hardware problem such as memory or cpu malfunction. If the problem is
 * not reproducible or it appears to occur randomly, then it is likely to
 * be triggered by a hardware problem. If you suspect a hardware problem
 * then you should try some basic hardware diagnostics such as memtest.
 * Please do not report this as a bug unless it is consistently
 * reproducible and you are sure that your bash binary and hardware are
 * functioning properly.
!!! FAILED postinst: 1

>>> Failed to install sci-chemistry/gromacs-4.0.5, Log file:



/etc/profile.d/99servers.sh and /etc/profile.d/tetex.sh are my personal scripts to define some variables and functions. In line 5 of /etc/profile.d/tetex.sh I define an auxilary variable T="/usr/share/texmf". 
If I replace all variables T in /etc/profile.d/tetex.sh by T_aux, it fails with the next script in /etc/profile.d which defines a variable T.

Reproducible: Always

[Comment 1 Markus Dittrich (RETIRED) 2009-09-25 03:47:28 UTC]

Hi Juergen,

This is almost certainly not gromacs' fault but a bug in your
profile scripts.

T is a readonly variable used by portage internally and you can 
and should not override it in your scripts. See man 5 ebuild for
all of portage's variables and make sure to use different names
for your variables in profile scripts. 

That said, renaming all instances of T that are being assigned to 
to something else should take care of the issue.

Best,
Markus