Ubuntu – How to run a script only during first install of a package and not during upgrades

aptdpkgpackage-managementpackaging

I recently started packaging up some of my software and publishing it on Launchpad. The installation and removal works fine, but upgrading the package from one version to the next version is problematic.

The problem is that there are some scripts that only need to run during the first installation of the package. These scripts populate the DB, create a user, etc. They are currently called in the package.postinst configure) section. However this results in them being called during an upgrade as well as shown in the diagram.

Is there a way to include a maintainer script in a .deb package that only executes during the first installation of the package and not during an upgrade? Or what would be an elegant way to include some initial setup scripts in a .deb package?

Best Answer

With a debian/preinst file you can perform actions on install but not upgrade. 

#!/bin/sh
set -e

case "$1" in
    install)
        # do some magic
        ;;

    upgrade|abort-upgrade)
        ;;

    *)
        echo "postinst called with unknown argument \`$1'" >&2
        exit 0
        ;;
esac

#DEBHELPER#

exit 0

Though as the name implies, this is run before your package is installed. So you might not be able to do what you need here. Most packages simply test in the configure stage of the postinst if the user has been created already. Here's colord

$ cat  /var/lib/dpkg/info/colord.postinst
#!/bin/sh

set -e

case "$1" in
    configure)

# create colord group if it isn't already there
    if ! getent group colord >/dev/null; then
            addgroup --quiet --system colord
    fi

# create the scanner group if it isn't already there
    if ! getent group scanner >/dev/null; then
        addgroup --quiet --system scanner
    fi

# create colord user if it isn't already there
    if ! getent passwd colord >/dev/null; then
            adduser --system --ingroup colord --home /var/lib/colord colord \
        --gecos "colord colour management daemon"
        # Add colord user to scanner group
        adduser --quiet colord scanner
    fi

# ensure /var/lib/colord has appropriate permissions
    chown -R colord:colord /var/lib/colord

    ;;
esac    



exit 0
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