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Tasklist

FS#7564 - Pkg 'dovecot' places files in /usr/libexec/ and has arguable 'conflicts'

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Benito (benito) - Thursday, 05 July 2007, 12:25 GMT
Last edited by Paul Mattal (paul) - Wednesday, 01 August 2007, 21:55 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Paul Mattal (paul)
Architecture All
Severity Very Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version 2007.05 Duke
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

Description:

#1 The package dovecot-1.0.1-1 from [extra] places some files into /usr/libexec/ which is (AFAIK) against the archlinux packaging policy.

#2 The same package has 'imap-server pop3-server' listed as conflicts which I think is a bug because: a) there are no file or other real conflicts that would require this setting; b) it bars from installing other imap-servers/pop3-server e.g. to compare them directly (which is annoying). (The package bincimap, for example, doesn't 'conflict' with other imap-servers.)
This task depends upon

Closed by  Paul Mattal (paul)
Wednesday, 01 August 2007, 21:55 GMT
Reason for closing:  Implemented
Additional comments about closing:  #1: Considered and rejected moving out of /usr/libexec. This is the standard way dovecot installs, and it doesn't offer a clean way around it.

#2: Done.
Comment by Jens Adam (byte) - Thursday, 05 July 2007, 16:52 GMT
#2 reminds me of Debian where server pkgs are started automatically after installation, and it's true, you can't have more than one daemon listen on port 143 ;)
I'm not really sure about to handle this though.
Comment by Paul Mattal (paul) - Sunday, 15 July 2007, 12:42 GMT
#1 is tricky. The packaging standards say:

Avoid using /usr/libexec/ for anything. Use /usr/lib/${pkgname}/ instead.

The problem is that if you tell dovecot to use /usr/lib as its libexecdir, there are filename conflicts with directories (e.g. imap).

Doing something one-off for this then interferes with Arch's goal to be vanilla and to do things that would be predictable to users of dovecot in general.

So if anyone has better ideas, I'd like to hear them, but I don't see a compelling reason to change this.

#2 you are right, and I'm removing the restriction.
Comment by Benito (benito) - Monday, 16 July 2007, 15:33 GMT
Thanks for changing #2, that was itching me more.

Concerning #1: I'd suggest to use /usr/lib/dovecot as dovecot's libexecdir. That would prevent filename conflicts, be conform with the packaging standard and also comprehensible to users (once they understood that there is no /usr/libexec at all in Arch Linux (at least on my system there wouldn't be -- without dovecot's files)). Also many other packages use /usr/lib/$pkgname/, too.

(But I know my suggestion ranks the packaging standard higher than the being-vanilla-claim which might be considered differently by the Arch development crowd.)
Comment by Paul Mattal (paul) - Monday, 16 July 2007, 16:20 GMT
This idea isn't terrible, but it results in having /usr/lib/dovecot/dovecot being the directory. I think I'd almost rather make it /usr/lib/dovecot/libexec and end up with /usr/lib/dovecot/libexec/dovecot.

The point here is that libexecdir as a concept is an integral part of dovecot's installation strategy. This makes me just want to leave it in /usr/libexec/dovecot, unless Timo would consider changing his install strategy upstream.

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