/var/lib/4store not created automatically

[Osma Suominen]

I installed 4store 1.1.4-1 from the precise repositories. I expexted the package to automatically create /var/lib/4store, the default data directory, but it wasn't.

README.Debian says:
To set up the database, use
  4s-backend-setup default

...but this doesn't work out of the box. I had to create the /var/lib/4store directory manually first.

When installing 4store from source, make install apparently does create this directory: http://4store.org/trac/wiki/Install
It was a bit surprising that the Debian/Ubuntu package didn't do the same.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: 4store 1.1.4-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-21.34-generic 3.2.13
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-21-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Apr 2 14:52:07 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=C
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: 4store
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-04-02 (0 days ago)

[Osma Suominen (osma)]

Nevermind. I just noticed that the init script creates /var/lib/4store automatically. I had expected the postinst script to do this.

Sorry for the noise, this bug report can be closed.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Alberto González Palomo (matmota)]

Thanks for reporting this. I just had the same experience when following the instructions at http://www.4store.org/trac/wiki/CreateDatabase, and reading your posts saved me a good amount of work looking around for how it was supposed to work.

I was going to create the directory manually, but having this error message gave me the impression that the package was unmaintained or something.

However running the init script is not enough:
------------------------------------------------
20:58:18 rdf$ sudo /etc/init.d/4store start
[sudo] password for user:
 * Starting 4s-backend 4s-backend 4store[22419]: lock.c:38 failed to open metadata file /var/lib/4store/default/metadata.nt for locking: No such file or directory
4store[22419]: 1: /usr/bin/4s-backend() [0x411811]
4store[22419]: 2: /usr/bin/4s-backend() [0x403a0b]
4store[22419]: 3: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xed) [0x7fbde7a9176d]
4store[22419]: 4: /usr/bin/4s-backend() [0x403a59]
21:06:19 rdf$
------------------------------------------------

The problem here is that, although /var/lib/4store is created, /var/lib/4store/default is not.
That directory would be created with the 4s-backend-setup command as explained 4store's wiki, but it can not succeed until /var/lib/4store exists.
The knowledge base name is defined in the start script as "default". It can be created in the normal way with:
sudo 4s-backend-setup default
After this, the init script runs fine.

Creating /var/lib/4store in the postinst script as you (Osma) proposed would make the whole thing straightforward.
Is there any reason not to do that, or was it a simple oversight?

[Kjetil Kjernsmo (kjetil)]

I think it is likely that this bug was fixed in Debian as of 1.1.5-1
as a result of Bug #670168 being fixed, as that should fix the initial knowledgebase, which again resides in /var/lib/4store. Please verify.