Debian bug report logs - #936, boring messages

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#936: dpkg conffiles handling?
Reply-To: mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell), debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-To: debian-devel@pixar.com
Resent-From: mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell)
Resent-Sender: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk
Resent-Date: Fri, 02 Jun 1995 14:03:05 GMT
Resent-Message-ID: <debian-bugs-handler.936.06021348503982@pixar.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 95 06:40:57 PDT
From: mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell)
Message-Id: <9506021340.AA11890@bb29c.mdd.comm.mot.com>
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com

PACKAGE: dpkg
VERSION: 0.93.42

I just noticed that a system on which I ran dselect some days
ago (and thereby re-installed everything) is no longer accepting
ftp or telnet connections.

Some investigation reveals that I have no /etc/hosts.allow or
/etc/hosts.deny files, although I do have .dpkg-tmp and .dpkg-new
files for both.  The -new and -tmp files have identical md5sums,
and match the netbase conffiles md5sums in /var/lib/dpkg/status.

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell)
Subject: Bug#936: Acknowledgement (was: dpkg conffiles handling?)
In-Reply-To: <9506021340.AA11890@bb29c.mdd.comm.mot.com>
References: <9506021340.AA11890@bb29c.mdd.comm.mot.com>

Thank you for the problem report you have sent regarding Debian GNU/Linux.
This is an automatically generated reply, to let you know your message has
been received.  It is being forwarded to the developers' mailing list for
their attention; they will reply in due course.

If you wish to submit further information on your problem, please send
it to debian-bugs@pixar.com, but please ensure that the Subject
line of your message starts with "Bug#936" or "Re: Bug#936" so that
we can identify it as relating to the same problem.

Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#936: dpkg conffiles handling?
Reply-To: mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell), debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-To: debian-devel@pixar.com
Resent-From: mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell)
Resent-Sender: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk
Resent-Date: Fri, 02 Jun 1995 14:48:02 GMT
Resent-Message-ID: <debian-bugs-handler.936.06021435129004@pixar.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 95 07:27:30 PDT
From: mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell)
Message-Id: <9506021427.AA11949@bb29c.mdd.comm.mot.com>
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com, mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com

My mouse slipped, and I sent this out before I was finished with it.

I said:

> I just noticed that a system on which I ran dselect some days
> ago (and thereby re-installed everything) is no longer accepting
> ftp or telnet connections.
>

(but the system did respond to pings)

> Some investigation reveals that I have no /etc/hosts.allow or
> /etc/hosts.deny files, although I do have .dpkg-tmp and .dpkg-new
> files for both.  The -new and -tmp files have identical md5sums,
> and match the netbase conffiles md5sums in /var/lib/dpkg/status.

Files in the same condition were /etc/init.d/netbase,
/etc/rpc, and /etc/gateways.  I restored the missing files
by copying the .dpkg-new version over them and rebooted.
Still no ftp or telnet.  Ping still OK.

At this point, I reinstalled the netbase package and all returned
to normal.  Since this only involved the netbase package, I'm
guessing that a dpkg installation of netbase either failed or
was interrupted partway through.

I then removed /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny and installed
the netbase package again.  This re-installation did not restore
the missing files.  Presumably, then, simply reinstalling the
netbase package when I first noted the problem wouldn't have
cured it.

It seems that there's a vulnerability window during package
installation where packages may be left in a state which is
unrecoverable without manual troubleshooting and correction if
dpkg installation is interrupted within the window (user ^C,
system crash, power failure, dpkg killed by shutdown, whatever).

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell)
Subject: Bug#936: Info received (was Bug#936: dpkg conffiles handling?)
In-Reply-To: <9506021427.AA11949@bb29c.mdd.comm.mot.com>
References: <9506021427.AA11949@bb29c.mdd.comm.mot.com>

Thank you for the additional information you have supplied regarding
this problem report.  It has been forwarded to the developers to
accompany the original report.

If you wish to continue to submit further information on your problem,
please do the same thing again: send it to debian-bugs@pixar.com, ensuring
that the Subject line starts with "Bug#936" or "Re: Bug#936" so that
we can identify it as relating to the same problem.

Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#936: dpkg conffiles handling?
Reply-To: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson), debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-To: debian-devel@pixar.com
Resent-From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
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Resent-Date: Fri, 02 Jun 1995 19:33:09 GMT
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Date: Fri, 2 Jun 95 19:33 BST
From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell), debian-bugs@pixar.com

Bill Mitchell writes ("Bug#936: dpkg conffiles handling?"):
> [...]
> It seems that there's a vulnerability window during package
> installation where packages may be left in a state which is
> unrecoverable without manual troubleshooting and correction if
> dpkg installation is interrupted within the window (user ^C,
> system crash, power failure, dpkg killed by shutdown, whatever).

Yes, there is.  This problem will be fixed in the C version of dpkg.

In the meantime, the workaround is not to leave the system after
you've had this happen to you - if you re-do the installation you
should clean everything up.

I'll mark this as done when it's really fixed.

Ian.

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
Subject: Bug#936: Info received (was Bug#936: dpkg conffiles handling?)
In-Reply-To: <m0sHbXZ-0000YDZ@chiark.al.cl.cam.ac.uk>
References: <m0sHbXZ-0000YDZ@chiark.al.cl.cam.ac.uk>

Thank you for the additional information you have supplied regarding
this problem report.  It has been forwarded to the developers to
accompany the original report.

If you wish to continue to submit further information on your problem,
please do the same thing again: send it to debian-bugs@pixar.com, ensuring
that the Subject line starts with "Bug#936" or "Re: Bug#936" so that
we can identify it as relating to the same problem.

Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Ian Jackson / iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk, with the debian-bugs tracking mechanism

This page last modified 06:43:02 GMT Wed 21 Jun