[Pkg-sympa-devel] Bug#631162: sympa: Package will not configure if dbconfig-common is not used

[Paul Menzel]

Control: found 631162 6.0.1+dfsg-1
Control: severity 631162 grave


Dear Sympa Debian folks,


Am Montag, den 20.06.2011, 22:24 +0100 schrieb Michael Howe:

> When installing, sympa prompts whether to use dbconfig-common or not.
> If you select not to, the installation then fails, leaving the package
> partially configured:
> 
> dbconfig-common: writing config to /etc/dbconfig-common/sympa.conf
> 
> Creating config file /etc/dbconfig-common/sympa.conf with new version
> Unknown database type .
> dpkg: error processing sympa (--configure):
>  subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
> configured to not write apport reports
>                                       Errors were encountered while processing:
>  sympa
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
> A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
> Setting up sympa (6.0.1+dfsg-4) ...
> dbconfig-common: writing config to /etc/dbconfig-common/sympa.conf
> Unknown database type .
> dpkg: error processing sympa (--configure):
>  subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
> Errors were encountered while processing:
>  sympa

I hit the same problem when upgrading from 5.3.4-6.1 in Lenny to
Squeeze. Unfortunately neither the NEWS.Debian.gz nor the commits in the
Git packaging repository mention what to do in such a case and if it is
mandatory and how to work with dbconfig-common at all.

It is not clear at all if dbconfig-common *has* to be used or if it is
optional.

> Looking at the postinst script, it looks like it's the following that's
> causing the installation to fail:
> 
> name=$dbc_dbname
> case "$dbc_dbtype" in
>     mysql)
>         type=mysql;;
>     pgsql)
>         type=Pg;;
>     sqlite*)
>         type=SQLite;
>         name="$dbc_basepath/$dbc_dbname";;
>     *)
>         echo "Unknown database type $dbc_dbtype.";
>         exit 1;;
> esac
> 
> However, since I chose not to use dbconfig-common, I don't think that
> this should be being called.
> 
> Trying to run dpkg --configure simply ends up with the postinst script
> exiting, so it's impossible to get the package out of the 'partially
> configured' state, hence the severity of 'important'.
> 
> Unfortunately, I'm not particularly familiar with postinst scripts, and
> so haven't tried to provide a patch, but would it be possible/sensible
> to test if dbconfig-install was set, and if not, skip the translation of
> dbconfig-common parameters to sympa's configuration values?

After the upgrade on my system, `/etc/dbconfig-common/sympa.conf` was
just the template and the variable where not assigned any values at all.
So I guess something went wrong during the upgrade.

I guess I was mistaken hoping to avoid such upgrade problem after
Squeeze being around for so long. As it breaks upgrades and according to
the bug reporter also installing Sympa I increase the severity to grave.


Thanks,

Paul
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