xargs (environment too large), set and rcS_fai

[Holger Levsen]

Hello world of FAI users ;)


First, to whom it may concern: big thanx for developing and contributing
to FAI and Debian! FAI simply rocks! (Debian of course, too!)


But now to my problem:

When I try to install "evolution" with FAI (I'm using woody...), I
encounter problems setting up "gconf". The errorlog reads

Setting up gconf (1.0.9-1) ...
xargs: environment is too large for exec
dpkg: error processing gconf (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgconf11:
 libgconf11 depends on gconf; however:

Searching the web and the FAI lists archive I found this message
http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-fai@rrz.uni-koeln.de/msg00858.html
containing this patch

--mP3DRpeJDSE+ciuQ
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="00100-rcS_fai-dont-export-subroutines.diff"

--- fai/scripts/rcS_fai Thu May  2 18:34:55 2002
+++ pfai/pfai/scripts/rcS_fai   Fri Jun 14 16:53:32 2002
@@ -55,10 +55,13 @@
     [ -f /tmp/install_config/fai/fai.conf ] && .
/tmp/install_config/fai/fai.conf
 
     # read subroutine definitions
+    # but don't export them
+    set +a
     sub=$FAI_SHAREDIR/subroutines
     [ -f $sub ] && . $sub
     [ -f $sub-$OS_TYPE ] && . $sub-$OS_TYPE
-
+    set -a
+    
     DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
     # local disks are mounted to $FAI_ROOT
     [ -z "$FAI_ROOT" ] && FAI_ROOT=/tmp/target

--mP3DRpeJDSE+ciuQ--

The patch's author writes: "just apply the attached patch (part of
PFAI), and those problems will be non-existant... if you make use of
hooks and you call FAI-subroutines within them, this patch will
certainly lead to problems..."

My only question is: will this break something else than hooks ? 
Am I right that only the variables between "set +a" and "set -a" are
_not_ exportet but the rest are ? (There is also a "set -a" before "set
+a")
 

Thank you for your time and space ;)
	Holger Levsen