asks about irc user home directory during upgrade

[Joe Barnett]

[Test Case]
1) On an Ubuntu 20.10 system edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file to have hirsute instead of groovy (this is the easiest way to verify the fix because the release upgrade process disables -proposed)
2) Run apt-get update
3) Execute 'sudo apt-get install base-passwd'

With the version of base-passwd in the release component you'll receive a prompt about moving the 'irc' user's home directory from '/var/run/ircd' to '/run/ircd'.

With the version of base-passwd from -proposed you will not receive a prompt and will instead see the following dpkg message:

"Changing home-directory of irc from /var/run/ircd to /run/ircd"

[Where Problems Could Occur]
In the event that there is a logical error when checking for the irc user and its old home directory being /var/run/ircd a debconf prompt may not be presented when it really should be.

[Original Description]
Upgrading from groovy to hirsuite, base-passwd asks if the `irc` user's home directory should be moved from `/var/run/ircd` to `/run/ircd`. Having no IRC server installed makes this very confusing, but appears harmless (https://askubuntu.com/questions/876975/user-irc-inside-of-default-ubuntu-16-04-server). Possibly caused by https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=946884, but can this not prompt the user for a decision?

ProblemType: BugDistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.04
Package: base-passwd 3.5.49
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.8.0-44.50-generic 5.8.18
Uname: Linux 5.8.0-44-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu59
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Tue Feb 23 12:02:59 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-08-17 (556 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.04 "Disco Dingo" - Alpha amd64 (20190305.1)
RebootRequiredPkgs:
 libc6
 libc6
 libssl1.1
 libssl1.1SourcePackage: base-passwd
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to hirsute on 2021-02-23 (0 days ago)

[capaj (capajj)]

Got this as well when upgrading from 20.10 t 21.04. Was definitely confusing.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[V B (iamnumpty)]

Received this while upgrading from 20.10 to 21.04

[Donatas (donce-lt)]

Same for me when upgrading 20.10 to 21.04. I'm running i3wm window manager with picom composition manager, if that's related in any way..

[asgard2 (kamp000x)]

I have this message too, upgrade from 20.10 to 21.04.

What answer would be correct? (I selected "yes", move to "/run/ircd" )

[W. Smithers (rb100)]

Had the same issue but installed and removed "teamviewer" some days before upgrading to 21.04. May user "irc" being left from this former program installation?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

base-passwd (3.5.51) unstable; urgency=medium

  [ Raf Czlonka ]
  * update-passwd.8: Environment variables are 'set'.

  [ Brian Murray ]
  * update-passwd.c: Skip debconf question when changing irc's home
    directory from /var/run/ircd to /run/ircd, since these are equivalent
    (closes: #990879).

[Robie Basak (racb)]

Hello Joe, or anyone else affected,

Accepted base-passwd into hirsute-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/base-passwd/3.5.49ubuntu1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-hirsute to verification-done-hirsute. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-hirsute. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

After editing /etc/apt/sources.list to enable -proposed and switching from groovy to hirsute I ran 'sudo apt-get install base-passwd' and observed the following.

Preparing to unpack .../base-passwd_3.5.49ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking base-passwd (3.5.49ubuntu1) over (3.5.47) ...
Setting up base-passwd (3.5.49ubuntu1) ...
Changing home-directory of irc from /var/run/ircd to /run/ircd
1 changes have been made, rewriting files
Writing passwd-file to /etc/passwd
Writing shadow-file to /etc/shadow
Writing group-file to /etc/group

Subsequently, I'm setting the tag to verification-done.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I also tried reinstalling the package after having already installed it per the test case.

bdmurray@clean-groovy-amd64:~$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall base-passwd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  linux-headers-5.8.0-25 linux-headers-5.8.0-25-generic linux-image-5.8.0-25-generic linux-modules-5.8.0-25-generic
  linux-modules-extra-5.8.0-25-generic
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 1215 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/46.2 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 229477 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../base-passwd_3.5.49ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking base-passwd (3.5.49ubuntu1) over (3.5.49ubuntu1) ...
Setting up base-passwd (3.5.49ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.3-2) ...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package base-passwd - 3.5.49ubuntu1

---------------
base-passwd (3.5.49ubuntu1) hirsute; urgency=medium

  * update-passwd.c: Skip debconf question when changing irc's home
    directory from /var/run/ircd to /run/ircd, since these are equivalent
    (LP: #1916651)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Mon, 12 Jul 2021 09:33:48 -0700

[Robie Basak (racb)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for base-passwd has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.