[Pkg-emboss-devel] Bug#435991: Bug#435991: emboss-explorer: crontest failure find: /var/www/emboss-explorer: No such file or directory

[Justin Pryzby]

On Sun, Aug 05, 2007 at 12:56:01PM +0900, Charles Plessy wrote:
> Le Sat, Aug 04, 2007 at 04:05:47PM +0200, Filippo Giunchedi a écrit :
> > it seems that emboss-explorer cron files are giving output when the
> > package itself is removed (REMOVE) or its dependencies (AUTOREMOVE).
> 
> Dear Filippo,
> 
> I am affraid that I do not understand the problem. Can you give me a
> link to the relevant part of the policy documenting the interaction
> bewteen package removal and cron jobs?
Actually (unfortunately) I don't think the policy specifically
mentions this.  It does, however, mention this case for initscripts
which have exactly the same problem.  initscripts are in /etc, and are
typically dpkg conffiles.  But conffiles aren't removed when the
package is removed (only when it's purged), so if an initscript of a
removed (but not purged) package were to attempt starting a program
from that package, it would fail.  The recommended way to avoid this
is to add to the top of the initscript:

	[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0

Crontabs have the same problem.  They're in /etc, are often dpkg
conffiles, and cause some program to be executed.  But the existence
of the program binary can't be guarnateed, so nonexistence should be
handled cleanly and elegantly.

> Also, what is the AUTOREMOVE fuction you are talking about?
Hmm this I can't answer..  I think maybe he means dpkg "deconfigure"
action?

Justin