[pkg-firebird-general] Old postinstall/config bugs still in all debian (and ubuntu) versions of firebird

[Fritz Elfert]

Hi Damyan,

Replies inline.

On 28.03.2017 21:48, Damyan Ivanov wrote:
> Hi Fritz,
> 
> -=| Fritz Elfert, 27.03.2017 21:43:50 +0200 |=-
>> I have analyzed two long lasting bugs in all firebird packages 
>> (2.5.. 3.0 on any debian dist => wheezy).
> 
> Thank you. The failed startup bug was lingering around without me 
> being able to reproduce it for quite some time.
> 
>> 1.
>> The first bug forces the password question to appear during an 
>> *upgrade* or a *preconfig*-install (running debconf-set-selections 
>> before the actual invocation of apt-get install). I believe this has 
>> been reported before somewhere but was never reproducable (but now 
>> it is - see instructions below)
> 
> I agree with your analysis and the proposed fix.
> 
>> 2.
>> The second bug is a timing problem during installation (while 
>> setting the password) and therefore happens only at 50% of 
>> installation attempts. *If* it happens, you can see a typical error 
>> output of gsec being unable to connect to the server.
> 
> I suppose that under heavy load the service may not be fully 
> operational when gsec needs it, but I think the fix needs to be 
> implemented in the .init file/systemd unit somehow. Pulling 
> a pre-dependency on a networking swiss-army knife is a rather far 
> reach.

I disagree. Implementing something at systemd/sys5init/upstart level is
even worse as it may hamper a system's boot process. One simply has to
accept, that there can *no* guaranteed startup time or even general
startup success. Therefore, this has to be handled at the client side.

If you don't like the nc approach (I don't know of any other tool for
simply validating that some port is connectable), then the only valid
alternative is to add the relevant code into the gsec binary itself.

Or a rather crude variant using netstat (which only validates that
something is *listening* on the port, not that it actually *accepts*
connections):

while ! netstat -tan | grep LISTEN | grep -q :3050 ; do
 ...


> 
>> I have attached a patch against the current wheezy package *just for 
>> reference
> 
> That helped indeed.
> 
> Now, about the plans to fix the bugs.
> 
> I think it is too late for firebird2.5 (not in stretch).
> 
> I'll file bugs against firebird3.0 and try to prepare fixes, but 
> somehow the problems don't seem to be serious enough to warrant the 
> 'important' severity. Annoying - yes, especially if one relies on 
> preseeding, but "a bug that has a major effect on the usability of 
> a package" seems a bit too heavy. What do you think?
>

I have no objections to that, especially since I simply have rolled my
own package at https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:ods/firebird.

Cheers
 -Fritz

> 
> Cheers,
>     dam
> 
> 
> 
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