[Pkg-mailman-hackers] Bug#502263: Bug#502263: mailman: policy violation (9.1.1): writes to /usr when config changes

[Thijs Kinkhorst]

On Wed, October 15, 2008 07:48, Helmut Grohne wrote:
> Policy section 9.1.1 says that FHS must be complied and FHS Chapter 4
> says that /usr must not be written to. However after changing the
> configuration file /usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.pyc is updated on
> restarting mailman which is a violation of the policy. It should be
> non-fatal when /usr is read-only, because python will then simply not
> write out the .pyc file. However using tools like tripwire may cause
> problems. Please lower the severity of this issue if you think a lower
> severity is more appropriate. I only filed it as serious because it
> technically is serious (a policy violation).

Thank you for your report.

I welcome input on this issue from people with more deep knowledge than
myself about these Python cached files, and how we could best address it
in this case. If there's a straightforward solution I think we can apply
it for lenny.

However I indeed don't think this should be release critical, as you say,
it doesn't break when writing fails. It is an inconvenience with e.g.
tripwire, but that is resolvable within the context of that application.
So I would classify it as an 'important' issue myself.


cheers,
Thijs