[Bug 510211] Re: 2.6.4-0ubuntu3 distutils modification of self.prefix breaks custom install scripts

[Rolf Leggewie]

Karmic has long since stopped to receive any updates. Marking the Karmic
task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".

** Changed in: python2.6 (Ubuntu Karmic)
       Status: Incomplete => Won't Fix

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Title:
  2.6.4-0ubuntu3 distutils modification of self.prefix breaks custom
  install scripts

Status in “python2.6” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “python2.6” source package in Lucid:
  Fix Released
Status in “python2.6” source package in Karmic:
  Won't Fix

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: python2.6

  The file debian/patches/distutils-install-layout.dpatch in
  python2.6-2.6.4-0ubuntu3 adds a special check for self.prefix ==
  "/usr/local", and changes the value of self.prefix to "/usr" if it is
  so. The change that does this is http://bazaar.launchpad.net
  /%7Eubuntu-branches/ubuntu/karmic/python2.6/karmic-
  proposed/revision/38/debian/patches/distutils-install-layout.dpatch. I
  think this was done to fix #456917, but it has the side effect that
  other parts of a setup.py file that read sys.prefix will be misled.

  This bug affects users who install zenmap from source. Here is a
  problem report we received: http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/2010/q1/91.
  Our setup.py script, which you can see at
  http://nmap.org/svn/zenmap/setup.py, uses self.prefix to do some post-
  install modification of installed files. The end effect is that when
  the user runs with --prefix=/usr/local, which is the default for our
  installer, files get installed in /usr/local/share/zenmap but the
  program looks for them in /usr/share/zenmap.

  I attached a small setup.py script that demonstrates the problem. The
  custom installer tries to modify an installed file after the normal
  install process runs, and modifies the wrong file. (You have to supply
  a test.py script for the installer to act on.)

  $ sudo python setup.py install --prefix="/usr/local"
  running install
  running build
  running build_scripts
  running install_scripts
  changing mode of /usr/local/bin/test.py to 755
  running install_egg_info
  Removing /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/test-1.0-py2.6.egg-info
  Writing /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/test-1.0-py2.6.egg-info
  self.prefix is '/usr'
  Modifying /usr/bin/test.py

  This is on Ubuntu 9.10.

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