[Pkg-ROX-devel] Bug#286162: rox-filer: menu-method try to write to /usr and /etc

[Bill Allombert]

Package: rox-filer
Version: 2.0.1-3
Severity: serious
Justification: FHS violation.

Hello ROX-in-Debian developers,

The file /etc/menu-methods/rox-filer do several things but in
particular:

postrun="mkdir -p /usr/share/apps/Debian ; rm -r /usr/share/apps/Debian ; " \
        ". /etc/roxmenu ; rm /etc/roxmenu"

This cause the following problems:
1) The FHS does not allow programs to modify /usr
2) /usr can be mounted read-only at the time update-menus is run so this
can fail.
3) You should use && insteads of ; to be sure the execution stop if one
of the command fail.
4) Creating temporary files in /etc is inappropriate. 
5) /usr/share/apps/ is not private to ROX so this menu-method might be
in conflicts with others.

What you should do instead is to add an empty directory
/var/lib/rox-filer/Debian to the .deb, and change the menu-methods to:
1) create the script as /var/lib/rox-filer/roxmenu
2) create the menu in /var/lib/rox-filer/Debian
and change rox-filer to read /var/lib/rox-filer/Debian. Maybe just
add a symlink /usr/share/apps/Debian --> /var/lib/rox-filer/Debian,
though that does not address point 5) but maybe no other packages use
/usr/share/apps/ anymore.

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.