packaging bug in ubuntu-docs

[Chris Coulson]

On Sun, 2009-01-04 at 14:24 +0000, Matthew East wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I need some help with a bug which has appeared in ubuntu-docs on some
> peoples' systems which I can't reproduce.
> 
> It is https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-docs/+bug/303578
> 
> It is caused by the absence of the symbolic link at
> /usr/share/gnome/help/libs. On my system the symbolic link is present:
> 
> matt at kalliope:~$ ls /usr/share/gnome/help/libs -al
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 2008-09-24 08:43 /usr/share/gnome/help/libs
> -> ../../ubuntu-docs/libs
> 
> The link is supplied by ubuntu-docs in the file
> debian/ubuntu-docs.links in the source package.
> 
> Can anyone shed any light on why this link may be going missing on
> some systems? I don't have enough knowledge of the packaging system to
> debug the issue.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> -- 
> Matthew East
> http://www.mdke.org
> gnupg pub 1024D/0E6B06FF
> 

Hi Matthew,

I've just done a little debugging of this on my Intrepid machine. I
purged ubuntu-docs from it, and then installed the Hardy version, which
ships /usr/share/gnome/help/libs as a directory. Then I upgraded to the
Intrepid version of ubuntu-docs, which ships /usr/share/gnome/help/libs
as a symlink. During the upgrade, the folder that was shipped with Hardy
package didn't get overwritten with the symlink that ships with the
Intrepid package, leading to the bug described (empty folder).

So, this is breaking only for people upgrading from Hardy to Intrepid,
but is okay on clean installs.

Loïc Minier had already suggested this might be the case, but this just
confirms it.

Maybe this is actually a dpkg bug?

Regards
Chris Coulson
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