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

[Michael Scherer]

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