gconf2 try's to remove /etc completely when purging

[Debian Bug Importer]

Automatically imported from Debian bug report #270967 http://bugs.debian.org/270967

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

severity 270967 important
tag 270967 + unreproducible moreinfo
thanks

Le vendredi 10 septembre 2004 à 11:45 +0200, Klaus Ethgen a écrit :

> When removing (purging) gconf2 it trys to remove /etc c ompletely!
>
> This will destroy the whole system if /etc can be removed on it and is not
> protected as on my system.

Hi,

Could you provide some details ? Are you sure that the /etc dir has been
deleted by gconf2 ?

The postrm command used on purge is:
"rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /etc/gconf/2" ... this only removes
empty dirs, /etc was empty on your box ?

I'm changing the severity to important for the moment, this problem is
not reproducible.

Thanks,

Sebastien Bacher

[Debian Bug Importer (debzilla)]

Automatically imported from Debian bug report #270967 http://bugs.debian.org/270967

[Debian Bug Importer (debzilla)]

Message-ID: <email address hidden>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:45:04 +0200
From: Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <email address hidden>
Subject: gconf2 try's to remove /etc completely when purging

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Package: gconf2
Version: 2.6.3-2
Severity: critical

When removing (purging) gconf2 it trys to remove /etc c ompletely!

This will destroy the whole system if /etc can be removed on it and is not
protected as on my system.

- -- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (800, 'testing'), (70, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.27
Locale: LANG=de_DE, LC_CTYPE=de_DE (ignored: LC_ALL set to de_DE)

Versions of packages gconf2 depends on:
ii libatk1.0-0 1.6.1-3 The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii libc6 2.3.2.ds1-13 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
pn libgconf2-4 Not found.
ii libglib2.0-0 2.4.6-2 The GLib library of C routines
ii libgtk2.0-0 2.4.9-1 The GTK+ graphical user interface
ii liborbit2 1:2.10.2-1.1 libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii libpango1.0-0 1.4.1-2 Layout and rendering of internatio
ii libpopt0 1.7-4 lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii libxml2 2.6.11-3 GNOME XML library
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.1.1-5 compression library - runtime

- -- no debconf information
- --
Klaus Ethgen http://www.ethgen.de/
pub 2048R/D1A4EDE5 2000-02-26 Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>
Fingerprint: D7 67 71 C4 99 A6 D4 FE EA 40 30 57 3C 88 26 2B
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[Klaus Ethgen (klaus-ethgen)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Hi,

Am Fr den 10. Sep 2004 um 12:47 schriebst Du:
> Could you provide some details ? Are you sure that the /etc dir has been
> deleted by gconf2 ?

When I purged the package first it failed because /etc/gconf/2 was not found on
my system and then after I created it it prints:
rmdir: `/etc': Permission denied
when purging. /etc is not removable in my environment thank goodnes.

I did not check if it whould remove /etc if it whould be removable.

> "rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /etc/gconf/2" ... this only removes
> empty dirs, /etc was empty on your box ?

No, but see above.

Hmm.. I didn't look to the postrm afterwards. I only did a
echo "#!/bin/sh" > /var/lib/dpkg/info/gconf2.postrm
to remove it completely. But it is strange that the rmdir above give this
message.

Regards
   Klaus
- --
Klaus Ethgen http://www.ethgen.de/
pub 2048R/D1A4EDE5 2000-02-26 Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>
Fingerprint: D7 67 71 C4 99 A6 D4 FE EA 40 30 57 3C 88 26 2B
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[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The only removal on purge in gconf is this one:
gconf2.postrm: rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /etc/gconf/2

This only remove empty dirs ... NOTABUG imho

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Le vendredi 10 septembre 2004 à 13:26 +0200, Klaus Ethgen a écrit :

> When I purged the package first it failed because /etc/gconf/2 was not found on
> my system and then after I created it it prints:
> rmdir: `/etc': Permission denied
> when purging. /etc is not removable in my environment thank goodnes.

You've purged only this one ? Do you remember which version of the
package it was ?

I've just tried in a fresh pbuilder, no problem ...

> I did not check if it whould remove /etc if it whould be removable.

Can you still reproduce the problem ?

> to remove it completely. But it is strange that the rmdir above give this
> message.

Yes, I don't understand where is the problem, but that's not a gconf
problem ... if "rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /etc/gconf/2" wants
to remove /etc you have a problem but that with coreutils, not gconf.

Cheers,

Sebastien Bacher

[Klaus Ethgen (klaus-ethgen)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Hi,

Am Fr den 10. Sep 2004 um 13:41 schriebst Du:
> You've purged only this one ? Do you remember which version of the
> package it was ?

No. But see below...

> Can you still reproduce the problem ?

Yes, I did on a other host (sid, newest version, all my hosts have "chattr +i /").
- ---
xxxx:~# dpkg --force-all --purge gconf2
dpkg: gconf2: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you request:
 libgnome2-common depends on gconf2 (>= 2.6.0-1).
 libgnomevfs2-common depends on gconf2 (>= 2.6.0).
 libgconf2-4 depends on gconf2 (>= 2.6.4-2).
(Reading database ... 94571 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing gconf2 ...
Purging configuration files for gconf2 ...
rmdir: `/etc': Permission denied
dpkg: error processing gconf2 (--purge):
 subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 gconf2
- ---

When there is somethink inside of /etc/gconf then no problem. But when there is
nothing more inside this bug happens.

When I then recreate /etc/gconfd/2 and make a "chattr -i /" the purge work well
without erasing something from /etc.

As the /etc gets not really deleted, i think the severity can be lowered to
'normal'.

Regards
   Klaus
- --
Klaus Ethgen http://www.ethgen.de/
pub 2048R/D1A4EDE5 2000-02-26 Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>
Fingerprint: D7 67 71 C4 99 A6 D4 FE EA 40 30 57 3C 88 26 2B
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[Debian Bug Importer (debzilla)]

Message-Id: <1094813225.5593.37.camel@seb128>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 12:47:05 +0200
From: Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden>
To: Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>, <email address hidden>
Cc: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: Bug#270967: gconf2 try's to remove /etc completely when purging

severity 270967 important
tag 270967 + unreproducible moreinfo
thanks

Le vendredi 10 septembre 2004 =E0 11:45 +0200, Klaus Ethgen a =E9crit :

> When removing (purging) gconf2 it trys to remove /etc c ompletely!
>=20
> This will destroy the whole system if /etc can be removed on it and is no=
t
> protected as on my system.

Hi,=20

Could you provide some details ? Are you sure that the /etc dir has been
deleted by gconf2 ?

The postrm command used on purge is:
"rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /etc/gconf/2" ... this only removes
empty dirs, /etc was empty on your box ?=20

I'm changing the severity to important for the moment, this problem is
not reproducible.

Thanks,

Sebastien Bacher

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Le vendredi 10 septembre 2004 à 13:56 +0200, Klaus Ethgen a écrit :

> Yes, I did on a other host (sid, newest version, all my hosts have "chattr +i /").

Ok, I've the problem too.

$ chattr +i /
$ dpkg --purge libgconf2-4 gconf2

and I get the same error

The weird point is that running "sh /var/lib/dpkg/info/gconf2.postrm
purge" doesn't display any error, but the same line called by apt raises
an error ...

Anybody with an idea on this ?

BTW not a gconf problem ...

Thanks,

Sebastien Bacher

[Debian Bug Importer (debzilla)]

Message-ID: <20040910112312.GA25438@ikki>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 13:26:05 +0200
From: Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>
To: Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden>
Cc: <email address hidden>, <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: Bug#270967: gconf2 try's to remove /etc completely when purging

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Hi,

Am Fr den 10. Sep 2004 um 12:47 schriebst Du:
> Could you provide some details ? Are you sure that the /etc dir has been
> deleted by gconf2 ?

When I purged the package first it failed because /etc/gconf/2 was not found on
my system and then after I created it it prints:
rmdir: `/etc': Permission denied
when purging. /etc is not removable in my environment thank goodnes.

I did not check if it whould remove /etc if it whould be removable.

> "rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /etc/gconf/2" ... this only removes
> empty dirs, /etc was empty on your box ?

No, but see above.

Hmm.. I didn't look to the postrm afterwards. I only did a
echo "#!/bin/sh" > /var/lib/dpkg/info/gconf2.postrm
to remove it completely. But it is strange that the rmdir above give this
message.

Regards
   Klaus
- --
Klaus Ethgen http://www.ethgen.de/
pub 2048R/D1A4EDE5 2000-02-26 Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>
Fingerprint: D7 67 71 C4 99 A6 D4 FE EA 40 30 57 3C 88 26 2B
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[Debian Bug Importer (debzilla)]

Message-Id: <1094816506.28916.3.camel@seb128>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 13:41:46 +0200
From: Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden>
To: Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>
Cc: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: Bug#270967: gconf2 try's to remove /etc completely when purging

Le vendredi 10 septembre 2004 =E0 13:26 +0200, Klaus Ethgen a =E9crit :

> When I purged the package first it failed because /etc/gconf/2 was not fo=
und on
> my system and then after I created it it prints:
> rmdir: `/etc': Permission denied
> when purging. /etc is not removable in my environment thank goodnes.

You've purged only this one ? Do you remember which version of the
package it was ?

I've just tried in a fresh pbuilder, no problem ...

> I did not check if it whould remove /etc if it whould be removable.

Can you still reproduce the problem ?

> to remove it completely. But it is strange that the rmdir above give this
> message.

Yes, I don't understand where is the problem, but that's not a gconf
problem ... if "rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /etc/gconf/2" wants
to remove /etc you have a problem but that with coreutils, not gconf.

Cheers,

Sebastien Bacher

[Debian Bug Importer (debzilla)]

Message-ID: <20040910115639.GA26286@ikki>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 13:56:39 +0200
From: Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>
To: Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden>
Cc: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: Bug#270967: gconf2 try's to remove /etc completely when purging

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Hi,

Am Fr den 10. Sep 2004 um 13:41 schriebst Du:
> You've purged only this one ? Do you remember which version of the
> package it was ?

No. But see below...

> Can you still reproduce the problem ?

Yes, I did on a other host (sid, newest version, all my hosts have "chattr +i /").
- ---
xxxx:~# dpkg --force-all --purge gconf2
dpkg: gconf2: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you request:
 libgnome2-common depends on gconf2 (>= 2.6.0-1).
 libgnomevfs2-common depends on gconf2 (>= 2.6.0).
 libgconf2-4 depends on gconf2 (>= 2.6.4-2).
(Reading database ... 94571 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing gconf2 ...
Purging configuration files for gconf2 ...
rmdir: `/etc': Permission denied
dpkg: error processing gconf2 (--purge):
 subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 gconf2
- ---

When there is somethink inside of /etc/gconf then no problem. But when there is
nothing more inside this bug happens.

When I then recreate /etc/gconfd/2 and make a "chattr -i /" the purge work well
without erasing something from /etc.

As the /etc gets not really deleted, i think the severity can be lowered to
'normal'.

Regards
   Klaus
- --
Klaus Ethgen http://www.ethgen.de/
pub 2048R/D1A4EDE5 2000-02-26 Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>
Fingerprint: D7 67 71 C4 99 A6 D4 FE EA 40 30 57 3C 88 26 2B
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[Debian Bug Importer (debzilla)]

Message-Id: <1094821212.28916.8.camel@seb128>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 15:00:12 +0200
From: Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden>
To: Klaus Ethgen <email address hidden>
Cc: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: Bug#270967: gconf2 try's to remove /etc completely when purging

Le vendredi 10 septembre 2004 =E0 13:56 +0200, Klaus Ethgen a =E9crit :

> Yes, I did on a other host (sid, newest version, all my hosts have "chatt=
r +i /").

Ok, I've the problem too.

$ chattr +i /=20
$ dpkg --purge libgconf2-4 gconf2

and I get the same error

The weird point is that running "sh /var/lib/dpkg/info/gconf2.postrm
purge" doesn't display any error, but the same line called by apt raises
an error ...

Anybody with an idea on this ?

BTW not a gconf problem ...

Thanks,

Sebastien Bacher

[Adrian Bunk (bunk)]

severity 270967 critical
thanks

Hi Sebastien,

I think I can answer the following question you raised:

<-- snip -->

The weird point is that running "sh /var/lib/dpkg/info/gconf2.postrm
purge" doesn't display any error, but the same line called by apt raises
an error ...

<-- snip -->

The problem is only triggered when /etc/gconf2/ is empty.

cu
Adrian

--

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

[Josselin Mouette (joss)]

severity 270967 normal
clone 270967 -1
retitle 270967 gconf2-common fails to purge when /etc isn't removable
reassign -1 coreutils
retitle -1 rmdir should check emptiness before permissions
thanks

Le lundi 30 janvier 2006 à 03:23 +0100, Adrian Bunk a écrit :
> severity 270967 critical
> thanks

This is by no means a critical bug. There's no way this script can wipe
out your /etc.

> Hi Sebastien,
>
> I think I can answer the following question you raised:
>
> <-- snip -->
>
> The weird point is that running "sh /var/lib/dpkg/info/gconf2.postrm
> purge" doesn't display any error, but the same line called by apt raises
> an error ...
>
> <-- snip -->
>
> The problem is only triggered when /etc/gconf2/ is empty.

This error message is triggered by rmdir trying to remove /etc.
Normally, rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty will try to
remove /etc/gconf/2, then /etc/gconf, then /etc, and will stop with /etc
because it isn't empty.

On your system, the chattr -i prevents the removal of /etc, and rmdir
fails on "permission denied" instead of "directory not empty".

I'd say that, so that rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty can work on
such systems, it should be made to check first if the directory is
empty, and then if it has the permissions to remove it. I'm creating a
clone report on coreutils, but maybe it is caused directly by the kernel
or libc - in which case it should still be possible to work around the
issue in coreutils.

Currently, rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty seems to do the following:
      * call rmdir(2)
      * check errno
      * ignore ENOTEMPTY
Maybe it could be modified to do the following:
      * check if the directory is empty
      * call rmdir(2)
I don't know whether this would be acceptable. Depending on the
coreutils maintainers' advice and decision, I will modify - or not - the
gconf2 scripts.

Regards,
--
 .''`. Josselin Mouette /\./\
: :' : <email address hidden>
`. `' <email address hidden>
   `- Debian GNU/Linux -- The power of freedom

[Bob Proulx (bob-proulx)]

Josselin Mouette wrote:
> This error message is triggered by rmdir trying to remove /etc.
> Normally, rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty will try to
> remove /etc/gconf/2, then /etc/gconf, then /etc, and will stop with /etc
> because it isn't empty.

I see in the gconf2-common.postrm that the following command is being
run:

        rm -f /etc/gconf/2/path
        rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /etc/gconf/2

Can that instead be changed to the following so as to avoid trying to
remove /etc at all?

        rm -f /etc/gconf/2/path
        rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /etc/gconf/2 /etc/gconf

It just seems simpler this way.

Meanwhile, I have removed the moreinfo and unreproducible tags and am
forwarding this upstream.

Bob

[Bob Proulx (bob-proulx)]

> Meanwhile, I have removed the moreinfo and unreproducible tags and am
> forwarding this upstream.

Actually I am doing that to the cloned bug 350541.

Bob

[Bob Proulx (bob-proulx)]

Please maintain the CC to both the bug number and the mailing list
when responding. Thanks.

Reported to the Debian BTS:

  http://bugs.debian.org/350541

'rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty' will ignore non-empty directories
unless it has insufficient permission to remove them, in which case it
fails. Can rmdir avoid failing in this case?

Here is a way to reproduce the issue. Root access is required in
order to have permission to set the immutable attribute. The
filesystem needs to be ext2-like in order to support it.

  # mkdir testdir
  # mkdir testdir/foo
  # mkdir testdir/foo/bar
  # mkdir testdir/foo/boo
  # chattr +i testdir
  # rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty testdir/foo/bar ; echo $?
  rmdir: testdir/foo: Permission denied
  1

But without the immutable attribute:

  # chattr -i testdir
  # mkdir testdir/foo/bar
  # rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty testdir/foo/bar ; echo $?
  0

This was found in a package postrm script which tried to clean up by
doing the following:

  rm -f /etc/gconf/2/path
  rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty /etc/gconf/2
  rmdir: `/etc': Permission denied

Bob

----- Forwarded *TRIMMED* message from Josselin Mouette <email address hidden> -----

From: Josselin Mouette <email address hidden>
Subject: Bug#270967: Why purging gconf2-common might erase your /etc
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 10:10:57 +0100

[...TRIMMED CONTENT, ORIGINAL IN ARCHIVE...]

This error message is triggered by rmdir trying to remove /etc.
Normally, rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty will try to
remove /etc/gconf/2, then /etc/gconf, then /etc, and will stop with /etc
because it isn't empty.

On your system, the chattr -i prevents the removal of /etc, and rmdir
fails on "permission denied" instead of "directory not empty".

I'd say that, so that rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty can work on
such systems, it should be made to check first if the directory is
empty, and then if it has the permissions to remove it. I'm creating a
clone report on coreutils, but maybe it is caused directly by the kernel
or libc - in which case it should still be possible to work around the
issue in coreutils.

Currently, rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty seems to do the following:
      * call rmdir(2)
      * check errno
      * ignore ENOTEMPTY
Maybe it could be modified to do the following:
      * check if the directory is empty
      * call rmdir(2)
I don't know whether this would be acceptable. Depending on the
coreutils maintainers' advice and decision, I will modify - or not - the
gconf2 scripts.

Regards,
--
 .''`. Josselin Mouette /\./\
: :' : <email address hidden>
`. `' <email address hidden>
   `- Debian GNU/Linux -- The power of freedom

----- End forwarded message -----

[Bob Proulx (bob-proulx)]

Bob Proulx wrote:
> Please maintain the CC to both the bug number and the mailing list
> when responding. Thanks.

Which would have been great if I had not been confused by the cloning
of this bug into two different bugs. My bad. Please keep
<email address hidden> instead of <email address hidden> in the CC
list. Sorry about that.

> Reported to the Debian BTS:
>
> http://bugs.debian.org/350541

Bob

[Jim Meyering (meyering)]

<email address hidden> (Bob Proulx) wrote:
> Please maintain the CC to both the bug number and the mailing list
> when responding. Thanks.
>
> Reported to the Debian BTS:
>
> http://bugs.debian.org/350541
>
> 'rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty' will ignore non-empty directories
> unless it has insufficient permission to remove them, in which case it
> fails. Can rmdir avoid failing in this case?
>
> Here is a way to reproduce the issue. Root access is required in
> order to have permission to set the immutable attribute. The
> filesystem needs to be ext2-like in order to support it.
>
> # mkdir testdir
> # mkdir testdir/foo
> # mkdir testdir/foo/bar
> # mkdir testdir/foo/boo
> # chattr +i testdir
> # rmdir -p --ignore-fail-on-non-empty testdir/foo/bar ; echo $?
> rmdir: testdir/foo: Permission denied
> 1

I've fixed it like this:
(but no test case yet -- volunteers welcome!)

 Improve "rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty"
 * src/rmdir.c (remove_parents, main): With --ignore-fail-on-non-empty,
 suppress a diagnostic also for e.g., EACCES, which can happen
 with read-only media or when the parent directory has the immutable
 attribute (set via chattr +i).
 (errno_may_be_empty, ignorable_failure): New functions.
 * src/remove.c (is_empty_dir): Move function to ...
 * src/system.h (is_empty_dir): ...here, and make it inline.
 Suggested by Josselin Mouette in <http://bugs.debian.org/363011>
 via Bob Proulx.
 * NEWS: Mention the improvement.

Signed-off-by: Jim Meyering <email address hidden>
---
 ChangeLog | 14 ++++++++++++++
 NEWS | 10 +++++++++-
 THANKS | 1 +
 src/remove.c | 32 +-------------------------------
 src/rmdir.c | 36 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
 src/system.h | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 6 files changed, 86 insertions(+), 37 deletions(-)

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 5e15325..017c307 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
[phone] Jim Meyering <email address hidden>
+
+ Improve "rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty"
+ * src/rmdir.c (remove_parents, main): With --ignore-fail-on-non-empty,
+ suppress a diagnostic also for e.g., EACCES, which can happen
+ with read-only media or when the parent directory has the immutable
+ attribute (set via chattr +i).
+ (errno_may_be_empty, ignorable_failure): New functions.
+ * src/remove.c (is_empty_dir): Move function to ...
+ * src/system.h (is_empty_dir): ...here, and make it inline.
+ Suggested by Josselin Mouette in <http://bugs.debian.org/363011>
+ via Bob Proulx.
+ * NEWS: Mention the improvement.
+
 2008-01-29 Paul Eggert <email address hidden>

  Don't modify argv in dd.
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index f474141..0d2d97d 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,12 +1,20 @@
 GNU coreutils NEWS -*- outline -*-

-* Noteworthy changes in release 6.10 (2008-01-22) [stable]
+* Noteworthy changes in release 6.?? (2008-??-??) [stable]

 ** Bug fixes

   ls no longer segfaults on files in /proc when linked with an older version
   of libselinux. E.g., ls -l /proc/sys would dereference a NULL pointer.

+ "rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty" detects and ignores the failure
+ in more cases wh...

[dino99 (9d9)]

Was fixed on 1.5.4 release