bug#47735: Non-absolute paths in mariadb scripts

[david larsson]

On 2021-04-12 22:14, Maxime Devos wrote:
> Hi Guix,
>
> As part of <https://issues.guix.gnu.org/47704>, it was discovered
> some shell scripts in the mariadb package (e.g. wsrep_sst_rsync)
> refer to programs *not* by absolute name.
>
> These programs come from iproute, coreutils, gawk, grep
> and mariadb itself.  It seems some substitutions are in order.
>
> Some complications:
> some of these scripts are only required in certain configurations.
> It's not ideal to increase the closure with rsync and xbcrypt if
> they turn out not to be needed ...
>
> Greetings,
> Maxime.

Adding to this, so far we've we discussed possible fixes:

1. Absolutize all invocations in the sripts using (substitute* 
procedure.
  - drawback: maintenance hassle.

2. Adding (define %default-environment-variables to the mysql-service 
and append this to the list-argument of the #:environment-variables 
keyword in the make-forkexec-constructor procedure.
  - drawback: doesn't actually fix the mysql package, just the service.

3. Adding a line: 
"PATH=<absolute-path-to-awk>:<absolute-path-to-grep>:<etc..>" in the 
scripts.
  - Not the most elegant solution, but possibly the best one; not too 
much maintenance and actually fixes both the package and the service.
  - drawback: It would also increase the closure size of the mysql 
package. Security issues?

Another option, perhaps, would be to have a mysql-minimal package (as 
the package is today) and a regular mysql package ("mysql-full" with the 
increase closure size), and you can use whichever package you need in 
the mysql-service.

I don't know which solution I would vote for...

Best regards,
David L