Bug#456385: Tries to remove non-existent /var/lib/gconf on purge

[Trent W. Buck]

Subject: Tries to remove non-existent /var/lib/gconf on purge
Package: gconf2
Version: 2.20.1-1
Severity: normal

Observe the following transcript

    $ sudo aptitude purge -y ~c
    E: /home/twb/.aptitude is readable but not writable; unable to write configuration file.
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    Reading extended state information
    Initializing package states... Done
    Building tag database... Done
    The following packages will be REMOVED:
      gconf2{p}
    0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.
    Writing extended state information... Done
    (Reading database ... 21135 files and directories currently installed.)
    Removing gconf2 ...
    Purging configuration files for gconf2 ...
    find: /var/lib/gconf: No such file or directory
    dpkg: error processing gconf2 (--purge):
     subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1
    Errors were encountered while processing:
     gconf2
    E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
    A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    Reading extended state information
    Initializing package states... Done
    Building tag database... Done
    $ cat /var/lib/dpkg/info/gconf2.postrm
    #!/bin/sh
    set -e

    if [ "$1" = "remove" ] || [ "$1" = "purge" ]; then
        find /var/lib/gconf -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -exec rm -rf \{} \;
    fi


    $

Suggest simply testing for the existence of /var/lib/gconf/ before
calling find, e.g. (untested)

    if test \( "$1" = remove -o "$1" = purge \) -a -d /var/lib/gconf/
    then find /var/lib/gconf/ -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -delete
    fi


-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.22-3-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages gconf2 depends on:
pn  gconf2-common                 <none>     (no description available)
ii  libc6                         2.7-3      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
pn  libgconf2-4                   <none>     (no description available)
ii  libglib2.0-0                  2.14.3-1   The GLib library of C routines
pn  libxml2                       <none>     (no description available)
ii  psmisc                        22.5-1     Utilities that use the proc filesy
ii  python                        2.4.4-6    An interactive high-level object-o

Versions of packages gconf2 recommends:
pn  libgtk2.0-0                   <none>     (no description available)