deluser fails to remove home because of Examples link

fixed in 3.80ubuntu2

This bug needs to be re-opened, as the previous fix did not account for the --remove-all-files usage.

deluser --remove-all-files fails to remove the Examples symlink in the more recent version of adduser in Hardy, adduser 3.105ubuntu1.
deluser --remove-home is OK.

root@tno:~# adduser worik
Adding user `worik' ...
Adding new group `worik' (1001) ...
Adding new user `worik' (1001) with group `worik' ...
Creating home directory `/home/worik' ...
Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for worik
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
        Full Name []:
        Room Number []:
        Work Phone []:
        Home Phone []:
        Other []:
Is the information correct? [y/N] y
root@tno:~# ls -la /home/worik
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 2 worik worik 4096 2008-06-25 20:24 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2008-06-25 20:24 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 worik worik 220 2008-06-25 20:24 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 worik worik 2940 2008-06-25 20:24 .bashrc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 worik worik 26 2008-06-25 20:24 Examples -> /usr/share/example-content
-rw-r--r-- 1 worik worik 586 2008-06-25 20:24 .profile

Now to delete the user :-
root@tno:~# deluser --remove-all-files worik
Looking for files to backup/remove ...
Removing files ...
Removing user `worik' ...
Warning: Removing group `worik', since no other user is part of it.
Done.
root@tno:~# ls -la /home/worik
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 1001 1001 4096 2008-06-25 20:26 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2008-06-25 20:24 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 1001 1001 26 2008-06-25 20:24 Examples -> /usr/share/example-content

The problem seems to be that deluser believes ~/Examples is a directory, and tries to rmdir() it unstead of unlink()ing.

That implies that find_match() is having problems. home_match() assigns a filename to @files on both -f and -l filetest conditions, which means that the Examples symlink ends up in both @files and @dirs -- the dual categorisation is harmless, because by the time rmdir() is called, it has already been unlink()ed. But the different test structure of find_match() won't allow dual categorisation.

Changing find_match() to test for -l before -d , and pushing -l results into @files, fixes the problem. I hope it doesn't introduce others, but that seems unlikely ...

Patch attached.

Changing bug status to In Progress as the previous fix did not account for all use cases.

Sorry, my comment was slightly inaccurate, although the fix & patch are still valid ...

> home_match() assigns a filename to @files on both -f and -l filetest conditions, which means that the Examples symlink ends up in both @files and @dirs

That should have been

> home_match() assigns a symlinked directory to @files on the -l filetest condition, and to @dirs on the -d filetest condition, which means that the Examples symlink ends up in both @files and @dirs

On a karmic system which I just tested, a new user does not have a sym link to Examples. Closing the bug as fixed. Please reopen if it isn't.

Sorry, the lack of an "Examples" symlink in current distro versions isn't sufficient to fix the fault. The bug is still present on 10.04, for example ... although to trigger it you now have to create your own symlink rather than one being created by default for you.

Thank you for your quick response, please forward the patch upstream to Debian so they can take a look at it. Thank you for looking into this.

This bug was fixed in the package adduser - 3.112+nmu1ubuntu3

---------------
adduser (3.112+nmu1ubuntu3) natty; urgency=low

  * deluser: Remove symlinks to directories with rm, not rmdir (Jim Cheetham).
    LP: #34299.
 -- Matthias Klose <email address hidden> Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:48:21 +0100