Surprise in texlive-base %preinstall script

[Michael Schwendt]

On Sat, 27 Dec 2014 13:03:12 -0500, Sam Varshavchik wrote:

> Who else thinks that this part of texlive-base's %preinstall is not really  
> such a hot idea:
> 
> for i in `find /home/*/.texlive* -type d -prune`; do
> find $i -name *.fmt -type f | xargs rm -f > /dev/null 2>&1
> done

This is a violation of the packaging guidelines. At least some packager
sponsors have been teaching "don't mess within /home" during review.
Though, it seems, it has not been added to the Wiki except for this:

  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#No_Files_or_Directories_under_.2Fsrv.2C_.2Fusr.2Flocal.2C_or_.2Fhome.2F.24USER

  | In addition, no Fedora package can contain files or directories or
  | modify files under:
  |
  | [...]
  |
  |  /home/$USER as users can arbitrarily modify the files in their home
  |  directories and rpm packages that modify those files run the risk of
  |  destroying user data. Additionally, sites may be nfs mounting /home on
  |  many different types of systems or even network automounting them on
  |  demand. Modifying files in home directories that are thus configured
  |  will have negative effects in both of these situations.


https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-packaging/2008-February/msg00106.html

  | On Wed, 2008-02-27 at 11:17 -0600, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
  | > /home is mine; packages cannot ever safely touch anything there.
  |
  | This seems like a succinct point to add to the Guidelines.
  |
  | ~spot