pkgtool option bug, Slackware 13

ljb643 · 10-04-2009, 08:06 PM

If you are trying to do an automated or scripted Slackware 13 install with pkgtool, be aware of the following new problem. The manual page for pkgtool now lists the command options only with 2 dashes, like "--sets", instead of "-sets" as in older versions. (The single-dash options do still work.) But two of the option names were mis-typed in the manual page. (Or perhaps the manual has the intended syntax, and the command itself is wrong.) If you use the options as documented, then pkgtool will loop using 100% CPU time doing nothing, which it does on any incorrect option, e.g "pkgtool --help".

Instead of the documented --ignore_tagfiles use --ignore-tagfiles
Instead of the documented --source_mounted use --source-mounted
(--source_dir, --target_dir, and --source_device are correct as documented.)

hartz4ever · 10-05-2009, 03:04 PM

pkgtool is a shell script that uses a case...esac statement to process command line parameters inside a while loop

Code:

189: while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
190:  case "$1" in

but there is no *) to catch all unhandled stuff at the end. But with an unknown parameter $# is still !=0, so the while loop simply cannot terminate. I've simply added

Code:

*)
    echo "unknown parameter"
    exit 1
;;

before the next "esac" and now pkgtool bails out. Perhaps you should file a bug report.

ljb643 · 10-06-2009, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Perhaps you should file a bug report.

Yes, I should. However, I've looked through www.slackware.com, and all the information files that come with my (paid subscription!) Slackware CD set, etc, and I see no indication that bug reports are welcome. Now, I know that "volkerdi -at- slackware.com" has been used on these forums for that purpose, but it feels wrong to me to use that without some official indication that it is the right thing to do.

gegechris99 · 10-10-2009, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ljb643

Yes, I should. However, I've looked through www.slackware.com, and all the information files that come with my (paid subscription!) Slackware CD set, etc, and I see no indication that bug reports are welcome. Now, I know that "volkerdi -at- slackware.com" has been used on these forums for that purpose, but it feels wrong to me to use that without some official indication that it is the right thing to do.

You can send your bug report to security@slackware.com as mentioned in the contact section of www.slackware.com

Also refer to this post. Patrick Volkerding himself answered on this forum two posts later.

ljb643 · 10-10-2009, 07:06 PM

Quote:

You can send your bug report to security@slackware.com as mentioned in the contact section of www.slackware.com

But it says there:

Quote:

Use this address to report security issues with Slackware.

Which this certainly is not.

Instructions for general bug reporting would be nice. (A bug tracking system would be even nicer, like launchpad or bugzilla.) Just my opinion.

gegechris99 · 10-11-2009, 03:36 PM

@ljb643

It's up to you if you don't want to use the suggested address.

gegechris99 · 10-21-2009, 02:25 PM

Hello,

I had a look at the pkgtool script and here's the part of interest to you:

Code:

# Here, we read the list of arguments passed to the pkgtool script.
if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then # there are arguments to the command
 while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
  case "$1" in
  -sets | --sets)
   DISK_SETS=$(echo $2 | tr "[A-Z]" "[a-z]") ; shift 2 ;;
  -source_mounted | --source-mounted)
   SOURCE_MOUNTED="always" ; shift 1 ;;
  -ignore_tagfiles | --ignore-tagfiles)
   ASK="never" ; shift 1 ;;
  -tagfile | --tagfile)
   USETAG=$2 ; shift 2 ;;
  -source_dir | --source_dir)
   SOURCE_DIR=$2 ; shift 2 ;;
  -target_dir | --target_dir)
   TARGET_DIR=$2
   ADM_DIR=$TARGET_DIR/var/log
   shift 2 ;;
  -source_device | --source_device)
   SOURCE_DEVICE=$2 ; shift 2 ;;
  esac
 done

So definitively it's a bug in the man pages.

As you are reluctant to send a mail to security@slackware.com, I'll do it myself.

ljb643 · 10-21-2009, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gegechris99

So definitively it's a bug in the man pages.

As you are reluctant to send a mail to security @ slackware.com, I'll do it myself.

Thank you.

Whether it is a manual error or a script bug is up to the Slackware maintainer(s), however in my opinion the manual is correct and the script is wrong. The other options use underscores, not dashes, in both old and new form options. If it is --source_dir, it should be --source_mounted, not --source-mounted. But that isn't how it is coded.

The other part that should be fixed is that if the script is invoked with an unknown argument it should not just loop.