[xml/sgml-pkgs] Bug#345223: xmltex: destroys local configuration

[Frank Küster]

Package: xmltex
Version: 1.9-10
Severity: serious

See also #337436 on passivetex which has similar code.

The postinst snippet below has the effect that if the local admin
deletes the configuration file /etc/texmf/texmf.d/96passivetex.cnf, it
is resurrected from the template file, which is a violation of Policy
10.7.3:

installconf () {
    # mv on disable file or copy template
    while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
        conffile=$1
        shift
        if [ -f $conffile ] ; then
           :
        elif [ -f $conffile.disable ]; then
            mv $conffile.disable $conffile
        else
            cp $TMPLDIR/`basename $conffile` $conffile
        fi
    done
}

Furthermore, there is no Policy or tradition that a configuration file
with suffix disable is treated specially.  Therefore it might well be
that local admin renamed the configuration file manually to
$conffile.disable, and this would also be destroyed by this snippet.

In the prerm script, the configuration files treated with installconf
are moved to $conffile.disable.  For texmf.d/20xmltex.cnf, this is
completely unnecessary, since texmf variable settings for programs that
won't be run don't do any harm.

In accordance with the Debian TeX Policy draft, ini files shouldn't be
conffiles, and if this change is made, also fmt.d/40texmf.cnf can stay on
the system, because fmtutil won't try to generate formats if the ini
file isn't available.

Regards, Frank



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.10
Locale: LANG=de_DE at euro, LC_CTYPE=de_DE at euro (charmap=ISO-8859-15)

Versions of packages xmltex depends on:
ii  tetex-base                 3.0-11        Basic library files of teTeX
ii  tetex-bin                  3.0-12sarge13 The teTeX binary files
ii  tetex-extra                3.0-11        Additional library files of teTeX

-- 
Frank Küster
Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer