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Dangeling symlink

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Lavene
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Dangeling symlink

#1 Post by Lavene »

I get a mail from 'anacron' daily saying:
Subject: Anacron job 'cron.daily' on sleepless

/etc/cron.daily/man-db:
mandb: warning: /usr/share/man/man1/x-terminal-emulator.1.gz is a dangling symlink
Now, I have followed the symlink mentioned in th email to /etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator.1.gz which again points to usr/X11R6/man/man1/xterm.1x.gz

And as far as I'm able to determine the /usr/X11R6/man/man1/xterm.1x.gz is an ordinary man page.

Code: Select all

man x-terminal-emulator
also gvies
man: warning: /usr/share/man/man1/x-terminal-emulator.1.gz is a dangling symlink
No manual entry for x-terminal-emulator
Both symlinks is owned by root by the way. Does that create the problem?

Tina

Jeroen
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#2 Post by Jeroen »

Something is wrong though. Try to run 'file' on the files & symlinks, and post that over here.

The problem this causes is simply no manpage. Maybe also x-terminal-emulator itself is also broken, which might cause more real problems.

Lavene
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#3 Post by Lavene »

The result of 'file':
tina@sleepless:~$ file /usr/share/man/man1/x-terminal-emulator.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: broken symbolic link to `/etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator.1.gz'
tina@sleepless:~$ file /etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator.1.gz
/etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: broken symbolic link to `/usr/X11R6/man/man1/xterm.1.gz'
tina@sleepless:~$ file /usr/X11R6/man/man1/xterm.1x.gz
/usr/X11R6/man/man1/xterm.1x.gz: gzip compressed data, was "xterm.1x", from Unix, max compression
The real funny thing is that I tried to remove and recreate the symlinks and still get the same error.

However: I cannot find a package called "x-terminal-emulator" and the manpage the symlinks points to is for "xterm". And since I use "man xterm" anyway I guess simply deleting the non-working symlinks should be safe..?

Tina

Jeroen
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#4 Post by Jeroen »

I see you didn't cut&paste :).

.1.gz != .1x.gz

http://bugs.debian.org/315195

Lavene
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#5 Post by Lavene »

Oh fer crying out loud! :oops:

Thanks!

Tina

dnusinow
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#6 Post by dnusinow »

This is a bug in xterm that I haven't bothered to track down yet, and neither has my comaintainer (who's mainly responsible for the package). It's been filed in the BTS though in several places iirc, so next time I devote some time to xterm I'll be sure to fix it.
David Nusinow

Jeroen
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#7 Post by Jeroen »

The buglog of the bug I quoted above suggests it's been fixed in unstable meanwhile by David Martínez Moreno

dnusinow
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#8 Post by dnusinow »

Ah, maybe he fixed it while I wasn't looking. Great to know. Thanks!
David Nusinow

Demetrius
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#9 Post by Demetrius »


However: I cannot find a package called "x-terminal-emulator" and the manpage the symlinks points to is for "xterm". And since I use "man xterm" anyway I guess simply deleting the non-working symlinks should be safe..?

Tina
There is no package called x-terminal-emulator. It is part of the alternatives system, which I believe is unique to Debian and very cool once you understand it. Alternatives keeps track of what you install through apt and keeps a list of applications that perform the same function. When you have multiple applications that perform the same function, the alternatives system allows you to choose which one is the default. For instance, you have w3m, links, and lynx installed (all web browsers for the command line). By default, w3m will open if you issue the command 'www-browser'. This can be changed (as root) via the command 'update-alternatives --config www-browser'.

So the command x-terminal-emulator should open what ever is defined by the alternatives system as your default x terminal. By default, I believe, it is lxterm.

See man update-alternatives for more.

Lavene
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#10 Post by Lavene »

Demetrius,

Thanks for the explanation! :)

I should have known that really since I have used update-alternatives a few times. But sometimes I just get a brain meltdown I guess... :P

Tina

Lavene
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#11 Post by Lavene »

Heh... today I got a new one:
/usr/share/man/man3/open_memstream.3.gz is a dangling symlink
Think I'll just leave that alone but I'm curious: Is it decided what the filenames should be (.nx.gz or .n.gz)?

:)
Tina

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