Bug#924401: #924401 base-files fails postinst when base-passwd is unpacked

[Tim Woodall <debianbugs@woodall.me.uk>]

Hi,

A. /etc/passwd is part of base-passwd's interface and base-files is
   right in relying on it working at all times. Then base-passwd is rc
   buggy for violating a policy must. Fixing this violation is
   technically impossible.


I seem to have hit this same issue independently.

Could you explain why "Fixing this violation is technically impossible"

As far as I can see, making base-passwd not essential, only required,
and then making passwd and base-files pre-depend on base-passwd the
system seems to bootstrap /etc/passed and /etc/group OK.

That also seems to conform to the debian policy. The oddity is that
base-files and passwd only actually need to depend on base-passwd, not
pre-depend on it as they only use /etc/passwd and /etc/group in the
postinst scripts but the debian policy doesn't seem to consider this
case.

(There are also issues with mawk preventing bootstrap but again I think
this is due to some missing pre-depends (or depends) as explicitly
configuring mawk first before anything else, even base-passwd resolves
this. But I haven't analysed exactly what is going wrong yet in that
case)

Regards,

Tim.