Bug#408361: [pkg-firebird-general] Bug#408361: firebird2-common: must pre-depend on adduser, not depend on it

[Lucas Nussbaum]

On 25/01/07 at 13:59 +0200, Damyan Ivanov wrote:
> -=| Lucas Nussbaum, 25.01.2007 12:21 |=-
> > During a piuparts run over all the packages in etch, I ran into a
> > problem with your package:
> 
> Thank you for your efforts!
> 
> Is this mail part of a mass-big filing that was already discussed? Can
> you give me a pointer?

Well, I don't have a specific pointer, but those efforts have been
discussed on various occasions on the -qa and -release mailing lists.

> > Selecting previously deselected package firebird2-common.
> > Unpacking firebird2-common (from .../firebird2-common_1.5.3.4870-11_all.deb) ...
> > adduser: `/etc/adduser.conf' does not exist. Using defaults.
> > Adding system user `firebird' (UID 104) ...
> > Adding new group `firebird' (GID 105) ...
> > Adding new user `firebird' (UID 104) with group `firebird' ...
> > Password:
> > 
> > Since adduser is in Depends, not Pre-depends, it is not configured yet at this
> > point. You should pre-depend on it, so it is configured at preinst time (or
> > move your adduser call to postinst, if that's possible).
> 
> Strange. Isn't adduser supposed *not* to ask for passwords for
> --system users? I don't see any setting about this in
> /etc/adduser.conf. How would configuring adduser make any difference?

Well, it's chfn that prompts for a password, actually. Configuring
adduser (i.e: letting it run its postinst) solves the problem.

> Moreover, reading adduser's source, it indeed does not prompt for
> password for --system users, it simply relies on `useradd', which in
> turn does not prompt for password by design.
> 
> Are you sure the log above is complete?

From the start of package unpacking to the password, yes.

> Can you give me a recipe for
> reproducing it?

In a chroot (preferably):
apt-get remove --purge adduser ; apt-get install firebird2-common

Or you can test firebird2-common using piuparts, but that's harder to
setup.

> Moving the adduser call to postinst is possible, but I am not
> convinced it is worth the trouble. A couple of packages (all in the
> same source package as firebird2-common - firebrid2) depend on
> firebird2-common being done with the account creation and I prefer to
> have a strong reason to fiddle with them just before the release.

Yes, the simpler solution would be to add it to the pre-depends.

Other packages are affected by this issue, you can have a look at
#408360, #408364, #408362, #408363.
-- 
| Lucas Nussbaum
| lucas at lucas-nussbaum.net   http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/ |
| jabber: lucas at nussbaum.fr             GPG: 1024D/023B3F4F |
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