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Javier López
Asked: 2014-06-15 03:23:17 +0800 CST

How to skip installation of a debian package if a file exist in the system?

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I'm interesting in avoiding the installation of the content of a debian package when a file is present in the system, eg. /usr/local/bin/token.

I'd like than the debian package will look for the token in the pre-installation phase (preinst?) and decide to install or not the content afterwards, maybe I could just delete the content to avoid copying anything.

packaging

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    If the preinst script exits with an error (non-zero exit code), dpkg calls the postrm script with abort-install as argument, according to the Debian wiki. So you can test for the file's existence in preinst before anything is done, do an exit 1, if it exists, and do nothing in postrm if called with abort-install and the file exists (since the postrm for must be certain that the install failed due to the existence of that file).

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