Subject: Re: [bug#30734] [PATCH core-updates 3/3] gnu: net-tools: Don't install 'ifconfig'.

From: Marius Bakke <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2018 19:40:30 +0100

Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]> writes:

> Marius Bakke <[email-masked]> skribis:
>
>> What about the below hack?  Alternatively, it could be moved to a
>> separate output.  Thoughts?
>>
>> From 0887b6af81781ae74f0a34c59f32ed098fa199dc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
>> From: Marius Bakke <[email-masked]>
>> Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2018 21:41:13 +0100
>> Subject: [PATCH] gnu: net-tools: Move 'ifconfig' to "/sbin".
>>
>> * gnu/packages/linux.scm (net-tools)[arguments]: In
>> REMOVE-REDUNDANT-COMMANDS-PHASE, use rename-file on ifconfig.
>> ---
>>  gnu/packages/linux.scm | 5 +++++
>>  1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/gnu/packages/linux.scm b/gnu/packages/linux.scm
>> index 875f11062..916309b79 100644
>> --- a/gnu/packages/linux.scm
>> +++ b/gnu/packages/linux.scm
>> @@ -1286,6 +1286,11 @@ inadequately in modern network environments, and both should be deprecated.")
>>                                         '("^hostname"
>>                                           "^(yp|nis|dns)?domainname"))))
>>                   (for-each delete-file dup)
>> +                 ;; ifconfig from net-tools is somewhat incompatible with
>> +                 ;; GNU ifconfig, so we keep it around.  Move it to "/sbin"
>> +                 ;; to prevent conflict in %base-packages.
>> +                 (rename-file (string-append out "/bin/ifconfig")
>> +                              (string-append out "/sbin/ifconfig"))
>>                   #t))))
>
> Sure, either that or rename it to “ifconfig.net-tools” (I think Debian
> sometimes does things like this.)
>
> But, isc-dhcp depends on net-tools, and it might have scripts that
> depend on its ifconfig, for instance.  Same for virtuoso-ose, isc-bind,
> iodine, and more.
>
> So all in all, your suggestion may be safer, though we should check
> whether these things break.

I like renaming it better than moving to 'sbin'.  I'll try out some of
the dependent packages and see what needs to be done.  Would it be okay
to switch to GNU Inetutils for those that require 'ifconfig'?