Jail question: packages with relative symlinks

[Valeri Galtsev]

Dear Experts,

I've got question about jails, namely, what do you do if some package 
you install in jail brings relative symlink(s)?

I install jails "by the book" and if relative symlinks are in 
/usr/local, there is no problem with those, as in jail an equivalent of 
/usr/local is

/s/usr-local

and the depth is the same as on real system. However, /etc in jail is

/s/etc

and if package brings relative symlink to /etc, in jail it will point 
nowhere. I just resolved this failure for package ca_root_nss in jail. 
This package places in

/etc/ssl

relative symlink:

cert.pem --> ../../usr/local/share/certs/ca-root-nss.crt

In jail, however it is situated in

/s/etc/ssl

so the above relative symlink points nowhere. I did a "trivial" thing, 
just replaced relative symlink with absolute one:

cert.pem --> /usr/local/share/certs/ca-root-nss.crt

,and as this symlink is owned by the package ca_root_nss, I locked that 
package, to prevent it from "automagically" replacing symlink with 
relative if updated package is installed.

This is kind of crude solution, standing next to the "hack", so I do not 
like what I did.


I wonder, how jail experts deal with relative symlinks when some package 
brings it into place where filesystem depth in jail is different from 
real system.


Thanks.
Valeri

-- 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++