Bug 816126 – sys-apps/mlocate-0.26-r3 NOT merged due to file collisions.

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED NEEDINFO

[Description MT 2021-10-03 19:10:28 UTC]

When installing sys-apps/mlocate in a new gentoo system, as suggested in the official Handbook[1], emerge fails with a file collision:

>>> Installing (1 of 1) sys-apps/mlocate-0.26-r3::gentoo
 * checking 16 files for package collisions
 * This package will overwrite one or more files that may belong to other
 * packages (see list below). You can use a command such as `portageq
 * owners / <filename>` to identify the installed package that owns a
 * file. If portageq reports that only one package owns a file then do
 * NOT file a bug report. A bug report is only useful if it identifies at
 * least two or more packages that are known to install the same file(s).
 * If a collision occurs and you can not explain where the file came from
 * then you should simply ignore the collision since there is not enough
 * information to determine if a real problem exists. Please do NOT file
 * a bug report at https://bugs.gentoo.org/ unless you report exactly
 * which two packages install the same file(s). See
 * https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Knowledge_Base:Blockers for tips on how
 * to solve the problem. And once again, please do NOT file a bug report
 * unless you have completely understood the above message.
 * 
 * Detected file collision(s):
 * 
 * 	/usr/bin/updatedb
 * 	/usr/bin/locate
 * 
 * Searching all installed packages for file collisions...
 * 
 * Press Ctrl-C to Stop
 * 
 * sys-apps/findutils-4.8.0:0::gentoo
 * 	/usr/bin/locate
 * 	/usr/bin/updatedb
 * 
 * Package 'sys-apps/mlocate-0.26-r3' NOT merged due to file collisions.
 * If necessary, refer to your elog messages for the whole content of the
 * above message.

I cannot manually remove sys-apps/findutils because it is part of @system and sys-apps/portage doesn't work without the find command, see https://bugs.gentoo.org/740744.

Not surprisingly, the same collision happens with sys-apps/plocate. 

How am I supposed to properly install sys-apps/mlocale (or sys-apps/plocate)? I could not find anything in the wikis / mailing-lists about how to fix these conflicts, but I am confident that it used to work in the past.

At the very least, packages sys-apps/{m|p}locate should block on sys-apps/findutils if there isn't a way to replace locate from findutils with other implementations. And the handbook should be updated accordingly. Also, note that the wiki page for mlocate[4] doesn't mention anything about these collisions.

Arch Linux doesn't build the locate command from findutils[2] and then let the user choose between mlocate or plocate. Fedora does the same[3].

All this is unnecesserely complicated and confusing.

[1] see section "Optional: File indexing" from  https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Full/Installation
[2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Locate
[3] https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/findutils/blob/rawhide/f/findutils.spec
[4] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Mlocate

Reproducible: Always

[Comment 1 Sam James 2021-10-03 19:12:34 UTC]

findutils definitely does not install those on my system:
$ equery f findutils
 * Searching for findutils ...
 * Contents of sys-apps/findutils-4.8.0:
/usr
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/find
/usr/bin/xargs
/usr/share
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0
/usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/AUTHORS.bz2
/usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/ChangeLog.bz2
/usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/NEWS.bz2
/usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/README-hacking.bz2
/usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/README.bz2
/usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/THANKS.bz2
/usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/TODO.bz2
/usr/share/info
/usr/share/info/find-maint.info.bz2
/usr/share/info/find.info-1.bz2
/usr/share/info/find.info-2.bz2
/usr/share/info/find.info.bz2
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man1
/usr/share/man/man1/find.1.bz2
/usr/share/man/man1/xargs.1.bz2

And I don't believe it's supposed to?

[Comment 2 MT 2021-10-03 19:28:57 UTC]

(In reply to Sam James from comment #1)
> findutils definitely does not install those on my system:


Funny, apparently it does on mine:

> qlist -e findutils
> /usr/bin/locate
> /usr/bin/updatedb
> /usr/bin/xargs
> /usr/bin/find
> /usr/lib64/find/frcode
> /usr/share/man/man5/locatedb.5.bz2
> /usr/share/man/man1/find.1.bz2
> /usr/share/man/man1/locate.1.bz2
> /usr/share/man/man1/updatedb.1.bz2
> /usr/share/man/man1/xargs.1.bz2
> /usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/ChangeLog.bz2
> /usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/README.bz2
> /usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/README-hacking.bz2
> /usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/THANKS.bz2
> /usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/AUTHORS.bz2
> /usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/TODO.bz2
> /usr/share/doc/findutils-4.8.0/NEWS.bz2

This is perplexing, but I see that the ebuild for findutils uses sed to patch the makefile on-th-fly:

> src_prepare() {
>        # Don't build or install locate because it conflicts with mlocate,
>        # which is a secure version of locate.  See bug 18729
>        sed \
>                -e '/^SUBDIRS/s@locate@@' \
>                -e '/^built_programs/s@ frcode locate updatedb@@' \
>                -i Makefile.in || die
>
>        default
>}

but for some reason that regex didn't do anything, or my sed command is not working properly. Let me double/triple check if this @system is in a sane state, and then I'll report back.

[Comment 3 Sam James 2021-10-03 19:44:35 UTC]

(In reply to MT from comment #2)
> (In reply to Sam James from comment #1)
> 
> but for some reason that regex didn't do anything, or my sed command is not
> working properly. Let me double/triple check if this @system is in a sane
> state, and then I'll report back.

Thanks. Could you share the build log from findutils please?

[Comment 4 Sam James 2022-04-19 14:42:29 UTC]

Please let us know if it happens again and if you can grab that info for us.