Bug 376129

Summary:	sys-apps/pkgcore does not properly replace a directory with a symlink
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn <chithanh>
Component:	[OLD] Core system	Assignee:	Brian Harring (RETIRED) <ferringb>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID
Severity:	normal	CC:	pms
Priority:	Normal
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---
Bug Depends on:	326685
Bug Blocks:

Description Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn gentoo-dev

2011-07-23 17:22:08 UTC

Upgrading a package where a directory is replaced with a symlink silently leaves the directory intact and discards the symlink.

sys-apps/portage has a similar issue, bug 326685.

When the package is later unmerged, the directory will remain as an orphaned filesystem object.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. emerge =kiwix-0.9_alpha7
2. emerge --onlydeps =kiwix-0.9_beta1
3. pmerge --nodeps =kiwix-0.9_beta1
Actual Results:  
$ ls -l /usr/lib64/kiwix/
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root    0 23. Jul 19:19 chrome
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root    0 23. Jul 19:19 defaults

Expected Results:  
$ ls -l /usr/lib64/kiwix/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   23 23. Jul 18:54 chrome -> /usr/share/kiwix/chrome
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   25 23. Jul 18:54 defaults -> /usr/share/kiwix/defaults

Comment 1 Brian Harring (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2011-07-23 23:41:18 UTC

Violates PMS; see https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=326685#c5 ; this is a bug in the ebuild for attempting it...

Comment 2 Brian Harring (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2011-07-26 19:53:28 UTC

Lack of responses means I slap this shut; per the norm, pkgcore will *not* violate PMS standards- if PMS EAPI says xyz, then xyz is the rule.

If you want this behaviour, you need a seperate EAPI (whether a new pms derived one, or a custom/local one).

Comment 3 Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn gentoo-dev

2011-07-26 19:57:21 UTC

I don't see any question which needs a response?

Btw. the reverse case (directory replaces symlink) is even more broken and not forbidden by PMS.

Comment 4 Brian Harring (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2011-07-26 20:12:53 UTC

(In reply to comment #3)
> I don't see any question which needs a response?

"Violates pms" kind of requires a response...

> Btw. the reverse case (directory replaces symlink) is even more broken and not
> forbidden by PMS.

Arguable in breakage; frankly making this change is pretty easy, but I'm tired of having to track what portage does rather than what the spec says.  As such I'm taking a hardline on it- write your ebuilds to PMS spec, or call it a different EAPI.

I probably will *support* the seperate EAPI, but no more pissing on the spec- it costs me too much time dealing w/ that crap.