Re: BUG #8532: postgres fails to start with timezone-data >=2013e

On 2013-11-10 20:57, Tom Lane wrote:
> Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnakangas(at)vmware(dot)com> writes:
> > On 16.10.2013 13:09, timo(dot)gurr(at)gmail(dot)com wrote:
> >> # ls -la /usr/share/zoneinfo/
> >> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 1 Oct 16 12:06 posix -> .
>
> > That patch conflicts with the upstream Makefile change to create the
> > "other" directory as a symlink. With the vanilla zoneinfo sources, the
> > symlink is fine, but by putting 'posix' inside 'zoneinfo' directory, the
> > Gentoo-specific patch creates that infinite recursion situation.
>
> I agree, this is an egregious packaging bug. Programs should be able to
> enumerate the timezone database without running into infinite recursion.

I agree. This looks like it's rather recent. I'm waiting for a reply
from the toolchain herd as to why they're effectively reverting that patch.

> Basically, I don't think we should do anything about this. Packaging
> the TZ database like that is completely brain-dead, and Gentoo needs
> to fix it, not tell us we're doing something wrong. The consequences
> of their bug aren't too serious in modern PG releases anyway. (Given
> what I know of their packaging policies, I have to wonder why they're
> still shipping 9.1 rather than the bleeding edge...)
>
> regards, tom lane
>

Respectfully, I disagree. PostgreSQL should be able to handle cyclic
directory structures gracefully. More basic utilities, like ls and du,
won't die because of it.

And, we've been keeping pace rather well. We had 9.3.1 in the tree
before you wrote your email. :p

--
Mr. Aaron W. Swenson
Gentoo Linux Developer
PostgreSQL Herd Bull
Email : titanofold(at)gentoo(dot)org
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