I have made a .deb
of my app using fpm:
fpm -s dir -t deb -n myapp -v 9 -a all -x "*.git" -x "*.bak" -x "*.orig" \
--after-remove debian/postrm --after-install debian/postinst \
--description "Automated build." -d mysql-client -d python-virtualenv home
Among other things, the postinst
script is supposed to create a user for the app:
#!/bin/sh
set -e
APP_NAME=myapp
case "$1" in
configure)
virtualenv /home/$APP_NAME/local
#supervisorctl start $APP_NAME
;;
# http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/securing-debian-howto/ch9.en.html#s-bpp-lower-privs
install|upgrade)
# If the package has default file it could be sourced, so that
# the local admin can overwrite the defaults
[ -f "/etc/default/$APP_NAME" ] && . /etc/default/$APP_NAME
# Sane defaults:
[ -z "$SERVER_HOME" ] && SERVER_HOME=/home/$APP_NAME
[ -z "$SERVER_USER" ] && SERVER_USER=$APP_NAME
[ -z "$SERVER_NAME" ] && SERVER_NAME=""
[ -z "$SERVER_GROUP" ] && SERVER_GROUP=$APP_NAME
# Groups that the user will be added to, if undefined, then none.
ADDGROUP=""
# create user to avoid running server as root
# 1. create group if not existing
if ! getent group | grep -q "^$SERVER_GROUP:" ; then
echo -n "Adding group $SERVER_GROUP.."
addgroup --quiet --system $SERVER_GROUP 2>/dev/null ||true
echo "..done"
fi
# 2. create homedir if not existing
test -d $SERVER_HOME || mkdir $SERVER_HOME
# 3. create user if not existing
if ! getent passwd | grep -q "^$SERVER_USER:"; then
echo -n "Adding system user $SERVER_USER.."
adduser --quiet \
--system \
--ingroup $SERVER_GROUP \
--no-create-home \
--disabled-password \
$SERVER_USER 2>/dev/null || true
echo "..done"
fi
# … and a bunch of other stuff.
It seems like the postinst
script is being called with configure
, but not with install
, and I am trying to understand why. In /var/log/dpkg.log
, I see the lines I would expect:
2012-06-30 13:28:36 configure myapp 9 9
2012-06-30 13:28:36 status unpacked myapp 9
2012-06-30 13:28:36 status half-configured myapp 9
2012-06-30 13:28:43 status installed myapp 9
I checked that /etc/default/myapp
does not exist. The file /var/lib/dpkg/info/myapp.postinst
exists, and if I run it manually with install
as the first parameter, it works as expected.
Why is the postinst
script not being run with install
? What can I do to debug this further?
I think the example script you copied is simply wrong. postinst
is not
supposed to be called with any install
or upgrade
argument, ever.
The authoritative definition of the dpkg format is the Debian Policy
Manual. The current version describes postinst
in chapter
6
and only lists configure
, abort-upgrade
, abort-remove
,
abort-remove
, and abort-deconfigure
as possible first arguments.
I don't have complete confidence in my answer, because your bad example is still up on debian.org and it's hard to believe such a bug could slip through.