[Pkg-zsh-devel] Bug#768079: Bug#768079: zsh: fails to configure if /bin is a symlink to /usr/bin

[Felipe Sateler]

On 27 December 2015 at 13:11, Axel Beckert <abe at debian.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Sven Joachim wrote:
>> On a system with everything in /usr[1,2], i.e. /bin is a symlink to
>> /usr/bin, zsh fails to configure:
>>
>> ,----
>> | Setting up zsh (5.0.7-3) ...
>> | update-alternatives: using /bin/zsh5 to provide /bin/zsh (zsh) in auto mode
>> | update-alternatives: error: unable to install `/usr/bin/zsh.dpkg-tmp' as `/usr/bin/zsh': No such file or directory
>> | dpkg: error processing package zsh (--configure):
>> |  subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
>> | Errors were encountered while processing:
>> |  zsh
>> `----
>>
>> I guess update-alternatives does not like the fact that the /bin/zsh
>> alternative and its slave /usr/bin/zsh are at the same place.
>
> Reading this comment and https://bugs.debian.org/807185, I wonder if
> this is not something, that update-alternatives should generally fix
> in its --slave handling instead of each affected package individually.

Checking wether a slave link is the same as the master link because of
usrmerge sounds a bit too specific to me to add to a low-level tool
like update-alternatives. It's like asking `ln -s file file` to do
nothing instead of returning an error.

If there is a bug here in u-a, it is that the error message is not very helpful.


-- 

Saludos,
Felipe Sateler