[debian-mysql] Bug#436468: mysql-server-5.0: Unnecessary chgrp of all DB files on package upgrade

[Delian Krustev]

Package: mysql-server-5.0
Version: 5.0.45-1
Severity: normal

I'm using the group ownership to manage the disk quotas of my users.
The preinst script does the following each time:

find $DATADIR -follow -not -group mysql -print0 2>/dev/null \
  | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty chgrp mysql

This recursive chgrp-ing seems unnecessary to me. IMHO /var/lib/mysql should
be included in the package, and the permissions managed by dpkg. This looks to
me as a legacy quick&dirty fix.

If you decide to leave it anyway, I'd recommend moving the command within the
block that creates the data directory and also removing the "-follow" switch
to find.


Furthermore this comment:

# Since the home directory was created before putting the user into
# the mysql group and moreover we cannot guarantee that the
# permissions were correctly *before* calling this script, we fix them now.
# In case we use NIS and no mysql user is present then this script should
# better fail now than later..

contradicts with the "set +e" seen below:

# The "set +e" is necessary as e.g. a ".journal" of a ext3 partition is
# not chgrp'able (#318435).
set +e
chown mysql:mysql $DATADIR
find $DATADIR -follow -not -group mysql -print0 2>/dev/null \
  | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty chgrp mysql
set -e



-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.21-2-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=, LC_CTYPE= (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages mysql-server-5.0 depends on:
ii  adduser                 3.104            add and remove users and groups
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]   1.5.14           Debian configuration management sy
ii  libc6                   2.6-5            GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libdbi-perl             1.57-1           Perl5 database interface by Tim Bu
ii  libgcc1                 1:4.2.1-2        GCC support library
ii  libmysqlclient15off     5.0.45-1         MySQL database client library
ii  libncurses5             5.6+20070716-1   Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libreadline5            5.2-3            GNU readline and history libraries
ii  libstdc++6              4.2.1-2          The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libwrap0                7.6.dbs-14       Wietse Venema's TCP wrappers libra
ii  lsb-base                3.1-24           Linux Standard Base 3.1 init scrip
ii  mysql-client-5.0        5.0.45-1         MySQL database client binaries
ii  mysql-common            5.0.45-1         MySQL database common files
ii  passwd                  1:4.0.18.1-11    change and administer password and
ii  perl                    5.8.8-7          Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  psmisc                  22.5-1           Utilities that use the proc filesy
ii  zlib1g                  1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-5 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages mysql-server-5.0 recommends:
pn  mailx                         <none>     (no description available)

-- debconf information excluded

-- 
Delian Krustev
"The mind is a terrible thing to taste."