Debian bug report logs - #936
dpkg conffiles handling?

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From cus.cam.ac.uk!iwj10 Fri Jun  2 12:29:18 1995
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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
Subject: Re: Bug#936: dpkg conffiles handling?

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 received at debian-bugs:

From mdd.comm.mot.com!mitchell Fri Jun  2 07:27:40 1995
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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
Subject: Re: Bug#936: dpkg conffiles handling?

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 received at debian-bugs:

From mdd.comm.mot.com!mitchell Fri Jun  2 06:41:15 1995
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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
Subject: dpkg conffiles handling?


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.