Re: Useless -r argument in install-sh

[Julien ÉLIE]

Hi Ralf,

Thanks for your answer.

> > In the latest libtool release (2.2.6a), there is an unnecessary
> > "-f" argument to $rmcmd here:
> >
> >   rmcmd="$rmprog -f"
>
> Hmm.  In general, this code is pretty tricky and I'm rather reluctant to
> do lot of "clean-up" changes if we don't find actual problems with the
> code.

As you speak about issues, I believe there may be one with how directories
are handled.  We added that in the install-sh script shipped with INN
<http://inn.eyrie.org/trac/browser/trunk/support/install-sh>:

--- install-sh  2009-06-15 19:46:55.000000000 +0200
+++ install-sh2 2009-06-15 19:47:24.000000000 +0200
@@ -238,6 +238,10 @@
    dstdir=$dst
    test -d "$dstdir"
    dstdir_status=$?
+    # Don't chown directories that already exist (added for INN).
+    if test $dstdir_status = 0; then
+      chowncmd=""
+    fi
  else

    # Waiting for this to be detected by the "$cpprog $src $dsttmp" command


But it is not enough.  There are also problems with chgrp and this patch is
perhaps not at the right place.

I for instance obtain:

../support/install-sh -c -o news -g news -m 0550 -B .OLD inews 
/home/news/bin/inews
../support/install-sh -c -o news -g uucp -m 04550 -B .OLD rnews 
/home/news/bin/rnews
chgrp: modification du groupe de `/home/news/bin/_inst.29292_': Opération non 
permise
make[1]: *** [install] Erreur 1

The chgrp operation is not allowed when "make update" is not run as root.



> > There is also a direct call to "rm" here:
> >   rm -f "$dsttmp"
> > I think $doit $rmcmd might be used instead.
>
> Hmm, this indeed looks inconsistent.  $dsttmp is consistently removed
> with plain rm, and $dst consistenly with $rmcmd, but $rmtmp isn't.
> Unfortunately, there is no documentation about either of the variables,
> so I'm still not quite sure what the expected semantics would be: either
> let all temporary files be removed in any case, or let all removals be
> done with $rmcmd.
>
> Another possibility that seems plausible is that $rmcmd was introduced
> only for the case of when plain rm would not work here: say, if we are
> about to install a shared library which the rm program depends upon.

All right, though it is not well explained in the code.

Have a nice day,

--
Julien ÉLIE

« Mon âme a son secret, ma vie a son mystère. » (Félix Arvers)