[bug-notifications] [alternatives 0004538]: Symbolic links not created in new sparse-root zone

[Mantis Bug Tracker]

A NOTE has been added to this issue. 
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https://www.opencsw.org/mantis/view.php?id=4538 
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Reported By:                gadavis
Assigned To:                phil
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Project:                    alternatives
Issue ID:                   4538
Category:                   regular use
Reproducibility:            always
Severity:                   major
Priority:                   normal
Status:                     assigned
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Date Submitted:             2010-08-31 22:19 CEST
Last Modified:              2010-09-02 22:53 CEST
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Summary:                    Symbolic links not created in new sparse-root zone
Description: 
There appears to be a bug in the alternatives mechanism when creating a new
sparse-root zone on Solaris 10 systems.

I have a global zone with CSW alternatives, CSWneon, CSWsudo, and
CSWsudo-common installed. The alternatives mechanism has registered the
symlinks in the right locations and alternatives --display neon and
alternatives --display sudo work as expected.

If I then create a new non-global zone with the default inherited paths
(your typical sparse-root zone), alternatives --display whatever shows the
correct paths listed, but the symlinks are not there.

After zone creation, I have to manually force the alternatives mechanism
to install the needed symlinks by running a shell loop:

for d in `ls /opt/csw/share/alternatives`; do 
	alt=`basename $d`; 
	alternatives --auto $alt; 
done

Note that if I uninstall CSWsudo inside the zone and then re-install it,
the alternatives mechanism works as expected. It's only upon initial zone
creation that the alternatives symlinks do not get created.
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 (0008244) phil (manager) - 2010-09-02 22:53
 https://www.opencsw.org/mantis/view.php?id=4538#c8244 
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Thanks for the info.
I'd say you're doing it "wrong", then.
Either you should have /opt/csw as inherit-pkg-dir... (or possibly have it
just directly mounted read-only from global zone...) or you should have it
installed as a fully local package.

Whats the point of having a zone-local filesystem for /opt/csw, if you're
not going to have actual "local" packages installed?

If you could recreate, or adjust, the zone, and let me know if this fixes
your issue, then I would be happy to, on our side, update our documents
with this additional information, in whichever locations you might
suggest.

I know you mentioned that you "tend to have different packages installed
on a per-zone basis than what is installed in the global zone". but you
cant "half-share" packages like this. pick one way or the other.
ERROR: Sanity check failed

;-)