[Reportbug-maint] Bug#539695: Bug#536576: [reportbug]: debsums: can't open $PACKAGE file ... (Permission denied)

[Sandro Tosi]

On Sun, Aug 02, 2009 at 05:10:31PM -0700, Ryan Niebur wrote:
> clone 536576 -1
> reassign -1 reportbug
> block -1 by 536576
> retitle -1 reportbug: pass --ignore-permissions (once available) to debsums
> quit
>
> I don't want to make this change,

strange...

> failing to open files *should* fail

what does this error say to the user running debsums?

- is it ok that the file can't be read?
- is it a problem?
- is the file there but it's the directory (tree) that can't be accessed?
- the file is there, and I can't ready (because I don't have
permissions), that's ok, but is the file corrupted or not?

I can live with it, can the normal user do the same? I doubt it. You
should really start thinking about users instead of lines of code to
write.

> and result in a !0 return code,

the same return code of all other errors?

> so I will add an option
> --ignore-permissions for reportbug to use.

This is a workaround, not a fix. If I can't access a file I can's say
*anything* about it's corruption or not, so _at the very least_ you
should say:

I can't access <...> because of missing permission, so I can't check
if the file is corrupted or not.

that's what a user wants to hear.

Regards,
-- 
Sandro Tosi (aka morph, morpheus, matrixhasu)
My website: http://matrixhasu.altervista.org/
Me at Debian: http://wiki.debian.org/SandroTosi