[aur-general] Package proprietary softwares with hard-coded paths within /usr/local?

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Chi-Hsuan Yen

6 Aug 2017 6 Aug '17

12:21 p.m.

Hello Arch enthusiasts, I'd like to create a package for Pulse Connect Secure, a popular VPN software. Current PKGBUILD can be found at [1]. That package works fine, but it conflicts with Arch's packaging guideline. [2] "Packages should never be installed to /usr/local" The reason I put files in /usr/local is that file paths are apparently hard-coded. Specifically, the VPN frontend (pulseUi) loads assets from /usr/local/pulse/html, and then it invokes /usr/local/pulse/pulsesvc to actually connects to VPN. Is there a workaround for this? Best, Yen Chi Hsuan [1] https://github.com/yan12125/aur/blob/master/pulse-connect-secure/PKGBUILD [2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_packaging_standards#Package_etique...

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Eli Schwartz

6 Aug 6 Aug

6:35 p.m.

On 08/06/2017 08:21 AM, Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general wrote:

...

Hello Arch enthusiasts,

I'd like to create a package for Pulse Connect Secure, a popular VPN software. Current PKGBUILD can be found at [1]. That package works fine, but it conflicts with Arch's packaging guideline. [2]

"Packages should never be installed to /usr/local"

The reason I put files in /usr/local is that file paths are apparently hard-coded. Specifically, the VPN frontend (pulseUi) loads assets from /usr/local/pulse/html, and then it invokes /usr/local/pulse/pulsesvc to actually connects to VPN.

Is there a workaround for this?

Not much you can do with software which encodes violations of packaging guidelines in its proprietary binaries. Depending on where the information is stored, you might be able to patch it... /usr/local/pulse *gags* If software insists on being installed to "/completely/arbitrary/directory" then you either package it anyway or you don't. But I suppose you could try asking them to install it in /opt instead. -- Eli Schwartz

Chi-Hsuan Yen

7:16 p.m.

On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 2:35 AM, Eli Schwartz wrote:

...

On 08/06/2017 08:21 AM, Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general wrote:

...
Hello Arch enthusiasts,

I'd like to create a package for Pulse Connect Secure, a popular VPN software. Current PKGBUILD can be found at [1]. That package works fine, but it conflicts with Arch's packaging guideline. [2]

"Packages should never be installed to /usr/local"

The reason I put files in /usr/local is that file paths are apparently hard-coded. Specifically, the VPN frontend (pulseUi) loads assets from /usr/local/pulse/html, and then it invokes /usr/local/pulse/pulsesvc to actually connects to VPN.

Is there a workaround for this?

Not much you can do with software which encodes violations of packaging guidelines in its proprietary binaries. Depending on where the information is stored, you might be able to patch it...

/usr/local/pulse *gags*

If software insists on being installed to "/completely/arbitrary/directory" then you either package it anyway or you don't. But I suppose you could try asking them to install it in /opt instead.

-- Eli Schwartz

Aha, didn't think of patching. That simple "fix" works! Many thanks! The key is that the path before and after should have the same length. [1] Best, Yen Chi Hsuan [1] https://github.com/yan12125/aur/commit/0588f70772fae8bd84f87e56015bdc87a6729...

Phillip Smith

7 Aug 7 Aug

12:31 a.m.

On 6 August 2017 at 22:21, Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general < aur-general@archlinux.org> wrote:

...

Is there a workaround for this?

It's probably not much cleaner, but perhaps install it to /opt/pulse and just symlink /usr/local/pulse to /opt/pulse? At least it gets the actual files out of /usr/local to where they "should" be.

Eli Schwartz

1:47 a.m.

On 08/06/2017 08:31 PM, Phillip Smith via aur-general wrote:

...

On 6 August 2017 at 22:21, Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general < aur-general@archlinux.org> wrote:

...
Is there a workaround for this?

It's probably not much cleaner, but perhaps install it to /opt/pulse and just symlink /usr/local/pulse to /opt/pulse? At least it gets the actual files out of /usr/local to where they "should" be.

In the general case, at least. But in the specific case, sed worked for binary patching... -- Eli Schwartz

KY Chou

8 Aug 8 Aug

3:13 a.m.

That's a great solution! But it doesn't have to be the same length actually. A shorter path with padded 0x00s should also work fine. On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 3:16 AM, Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general < aur-general@archlinux.org> wrote:

...

On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 2:35 AM, Eli Schwartz wrote:

...
On 08/06/2017 08:21 AM, Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general wrote:

...
Hello Arch enthusiasts,

I'd like to create a package for Pulse Connect Secure, a popular VPN software. Current PKGBUILD can be found at [1]. That package works fine, but it conflicts with Arch's packaging guideline. [2]

"Packages should never be installed to /usr/local"

The reason I put files in /usr/local is that file paths are apparently hard-coded. Specifically, the VPN frontend (pulseUi) loads assets from /usr/local/pulse/html, and then it invokes /usr/local/pulse/pulsesvc to actually connects to VPN.

Is there a workaround for this?

Not much you can do with software which encodes violations of packaging guidelines in its proprietary binaries. Depending on where the information is stored, you might be able to patch it...

/usr/local/pulse *gags*

If software insists on being installed to "/completely/arbitrary/directory" then you either package it anyway or you don't. But I suppose you could try asking them to install it in /opt instead.

-- Eli Schwartz

Aha, didn't think of patching. That simple "fix" works! Many thanks! The key is that the path before and after should have the same length. [1]

Best,

Yen Chi Hsuan

[1] https://github.com/yan12125/aur/commit/0588f70772fae8bd84f87e56015bdc 87a6729d90#diff-62ac6814f4207a45189d3491ca4e38f3R28

Chi-Hsuan Yen

2:38 p.m.

On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 11:13 AM, KY Chou wrote:

...

That's a great solution! But it doesn't have to be the same length actually. A shorter path with padded 0x00s should also work fine.

On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 3:16 AM, Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general wrote:

...
On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 2:35 AM, Eli Schwartz wrote:

...
On 08/06/2017 08:21 AM, Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general wrote:

...
Hello Arch enthusiasts,

I'd like to create a package for Pulse Connect Secure, a popular VPN software. Current PKGBUILD can be found at [1]. That package works fine, but it conflicts with Arch's packaging guideline. [2]

"Packages should never be installed to /usr/local"

The reason I put files in /usr/local is that file paths are apparently hard-coded. Specifically, the VPN frontend (pulseUi) loads assets from /usr/local/pulse/html, and then it invokes /usr/local/pulse/pulsesvc to actually connects to VPN.

Is there a workaround for this?

Not much you can do with software which encodes violations of packaging guidelines in its proprietary binaries. Depending on where the information is stored, you might be able to patch it...

/usr/local/pulse *gags*

If software insists on being installed to "/completely/arbitrary/directory" then you either package it anyway or you don't. But I suppose you could try asking them to install it in /opt instead.

-- Eli Schwartz

Aha, didn't think of patching. That simple "fix" works! Many thanks! The key is that the path before and after should have the same length. [1]

Best,

Yen Chi Hsuan

[1] https://github.com/yan12125/aur/commit/0588f70772fae8bd84f87e56015bdc87a6729...

Tailing null bytes sounds absolutely interesting. But I get no luck for this package. There's a line in the offensive binary: file:////\x0/usr/local/pulse/\x0/html/ (\x0 indicates a null byte) I tried several combinations: file:////\x0/opt/pulse/\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0/html/ file:////\x0/opt/pulse//html/\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0 file:////\x0/opt/pulse/\x0/html/\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0 Some doesn't run, and others uses a wrong path: (pulseUi:1501): Gtk-WARNING **: Error loading icon from file '/opt/pulse/': Image file '/opt/pulse/' contains no data or (pulseUi:9589): Gtk-WARNING **: Error loading icon from file '/opt/pulse//html//html/images/Pulse-Secure128x128.png': Failed to open file '/opt/pulse//html//html/images/Pulse-Secure128x128.png': No such file or directory I think sticking to same-size patching is simpler :) Best, Yen Chi Hsuan

张海

4:14 p.m.

You can probably try stuffing multiple consecutive slashes ('/') and they should be normalized into one. You can also play with "/./" if the program wasn't happy with consecutive slashes. Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general 于2017年8月8日周二 22:39写道：

...

...
That's a great solution! But it doesn't have to be the same length actually. A shorter path with padded 0x00s should also work fine.

On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 3:16 AM, Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general wrote:

...
On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 2:35 AM, Eli Schwartz wrote:

...
On 08/06/2017 08:21 AM, Chi-Hsuan Yen via aur-general wrote:

...
Hello Arch enthusiasts,

I'd like to create a package for Pulse Connect Secure, a popular VPN software. Current PKGBUILD can be found at [1]. That package works fine, but it conflicts with Arch's packaging guideline. [2]

"Packages should never be installed to /usr/local"

The reason I put files in /usr/local is that file paths are

apparently

...
...
...
hard-coded. Specifically, the VPN frontend (pulseUi) loads assets from /usr/local/pulse/html, and then it invokes /usr/local/pulse/pulsesvc to actually connects to VPN.

Is there a workaround for this?

Not much you can do with software which encodes violations of

On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 11:13 AM, KY Chou wrote: packaging

...
...
...
guidelines in its proprietary binaries. Depending on where the information is stored, you might be able to patch it...

/usr/local/pulse *gags*

If software insists on being installed to "/completely/arbitrary/directory" then you either package it anyway or you don't. But I suppose you could try asking them to install it in /opt instead.

-- Eli Schwartz

Aha, didn't think of patching. That simple "fix" works! Many thanks! The key is that the path before and after should have the same length. [1]

Best,

Yen Chi Hsuan

[1]

https://github.com/yan12125/aur/commit/0588f70772fae8bd84f87e56015bdc87a6729...

Tailing null bytes sounds absolutely interesting. But I get no luck for this package. There's a line in the offensive binary:

file:////\x0/usr/local/pulse/\x0/html/

(\x0 indicates a null byte)

I tried several combinations:

file:////\x0/opt/pulse/\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0/html/ file:////\x0/opt/pulse//html/\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0 file:////\x0/opt/pulse/\x0/html/\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0\x0

Some doesn't run, and others uses a wrong path:

(pulseUi:1501): Gtk-WARNING **: Error loading icon from file '/opt/pulse/': Image file '/opt/pulse/' contains no data

or

(pulseUi:9589): Gtk-WARNING **: Error loading icon from file '/opt/pulse//html//html/images/Pulse-Secure128x128.png': Failed to open file '/opt/pulse//html//html/images/Pulse-Secure128x128.png': No such file or directory

I think sticking to same-size patching is simpler :)

Best,

Yen Chi Hsuan

-- Zhang, Hai Zhejiang University, Computer Science and Technology Blog: http://blog.zhanghai.me/ Github: https://github.com/DreaminginCodeZH

Eli Schwartz

4:20 p.m.

On 08/08/2017 12:14 PM, 张海 via aur-general wrote:

...

You can probably try stuffing multiple consecutive slashes ('/') and they should be normalized into one. You can also play with "/./" if the program wasn't happy with consecutive slashes.

1) Please don't top-post. 2) I think you're trying too hard to make this solution work. And /./ doesn't solve anything since you once again end up with a solution that only works for filenames of a certain length (multiples of 2) so you might as well just choose a path of the right length that *coincidentally* happens to be in theme. -- Eli Schwartz

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Chi-Hsuan Yen
Eli Schwartz
KY Chou
Phillip Smith
张海