Bug 1897928

Same on F31->F33 upgrade.

Immediately after the upgrade, I wanted to use the `mail` command, and got the same suggestion to install mailx package, which was already installed.

`dnf reinstall mailx` fixed it for me (no need to remove all the dependencies then, Tim!).

This is what was on the filesystem initially:
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 22 Nov 23 09:17 /usr/bin/mail -> /etc/alternatives/mail
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 14 Nov 23 09:17 /etc/alternatives/mail -> /usr/bin/mailx [<- BROKEN LINK - /usr/bin/mailx missing]

After reinstall of mailx, this appeared:
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 23 Nov 23 11:56 /usr/bin/mailx -> /etc/alternatives/mailx

I'm not sure what happened here, as /usr/bin/mailx is owned by the mailx package so I assume it should be created on install.

I checked the upgrade logs, but didn't see any errors emitted:
Nov 23 09:17:56 gigalith.gloomytrousers.co.uk dnf[1073]:   Running scriptlet: mailx-12.5-35.fc33.x86_64                        1415/6239
Nov 23 09:17:57 gigalith.gloomytrousers.co.uk dnf[1073]:   Upgrading        : mailx-12.5-35.fc33.x86_64                        1415/6239
Nov 23 09:17:57 gigalith.gloomytrousers.co.uk dnf[1073]:   Running scriptlet: mailx-12.5-35.fc33.x86_64                        1415/6239
...
Nov 23 10:59:25 gigalith.gloomytrousers.co.uk dnf[1073]:   Cleanup          : mailx-12.5-32.fc31.x86_64                        5017/6239
...
Nov 23 11:26:10 gigalith.gloomytrousers.co.uk dnf[1073]:   Verifying        : mailx-12.5-35.fc33.x86_64                        3793/6239
Nov 23 11:26:10 gigalith.gloomytrousers.co.uk dnf[1073]:   Verifying        : mailx-12.5-32.fc31.x86_64                        3794/6239

The only binary for this package is mailx.mailx as you can see from the build-id:
# rpm -ql mailx
/etc/mail.rc
/usr/bin/Mail
/usr/bin/mail
/usr/bin/mailx
/usr/bin/mailx.mailx
/usr/bin/nail
/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/13
/usr/lib/.build-id/13/2b6958880188398a8d95702b2bf9314b1b32cf
/usr/share/doc/mailx
/usr/share/doc/mailx/AUTHORS
/usr/share/doc/mailx/COPYING
/usr/share/doc/mailx/README
/usr/share/man/man1/Mail.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/mail.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/mailx.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/mailx.mailx.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/nail.1.gz
# ls -l /usr/lib/.build-id/13/2b6958880188398a8d95702b2bf9314b1b32cf 
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 31 Jul 28 21:09 /usr/lib/.build-id/13/2b6958880188398a8d95702b2bf9314b1b32cf -> ../../../../usr/bin/mailx.mailx

--
it appears the issue is with the upgrade and the /etc/alternatives links pointing to the new binary - suspect larger issue is not running the pre/postinstall scriptlet on an upgrade:
# rpm -q --scripts mailx
preinstall scriptlet (using /bin/sh):
# remove alternativized files if they are not symlinks
for f in Mail mail mailx nail; do
    [ -L /usr/bin/$f ] || rm -f /usr/bin/$f >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
    [ -L /usr/share/man/man1/$f.1.gz ] || rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/$f.1.gz >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
done
postinstall scriptlet (using /bin/sh):
# set up the alternatives files
/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/mailx mailx /usr/bin/mailx.mailx 200 \
    --slave /usr/bin/Mail Mail /usr/bin/mailx \
    --slave /usr/bin/mail mail /usr/bin/mailx \
    --slave /usr/bin/nail nail /usr/bin/mailx \
    --slave /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.1.gz mailx.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.mailx.1.gz \
    --slave /usr/share/man/man1/Mail.1.gz Mail.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.mailx.1.gz \
    --slave /usr/share/man/man1/mail.1.gz mail.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.mailx.1.gz \
    --slave /usr/share/man/man1/nail.1.gz nail.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.mailx.1.gz \
    >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
preuninstall scriptlet (using /bin/sh):
if [ $1 -eq 0 ]; then
    /usr/sbin/update-alternatives --remove mailx /usr/bin/mailx.mailx >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
fi
postuninstall scriptlet (using /bin/sh):
if [ $1 -ge 1 ]; then
    if [ "$(readlink /etc/alternatives/mailx)" == "/usr/bin/mailx.mailx" ]; then
        /usr/sbin/update-alternatives --set mailx /usr/bin/mailx.mailx >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
    fi
fi


dnf reinstall appears to correctly run the scripts

The postinstall scriptlet should be as follows:

# set up the alternatives files
/usr/sbin/update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/mailx mailx /usr/bin/mailx.mailx 200 \
    --slave /usr/bin/Mail Mail /usr/bin/mailx.mailx \
    --slave /usr/bin/mail mail /usr/bin/mailx.mailx \
    --slave /usr/bin/nail nail /usr/bin/mailx.mailx \
    --slave /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.1.gz mailx.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.mailx.1.gz \
    --slave /usr/share/man/man1/Mail.1.gz Mail.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.mailx.1.gz \
    --slave /usr/share/man/man1/mail.1.gz mail.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.mailx.1.gz \
    --slave /usr/share/man/man1/nail.1.gz nail.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.mailx.1.gz \
    >/dev/null 2>&1 || :

FEDORA-2021-227f7f635b has been submitted as an update to Fedora 34. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-227f7f635b

FEDORA-2021-7cd5de24ac has been submitted as an update to Fedora 33. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-7cd5de24ac

FEDORA-2021-227f7f635b has been pushed to the Fedora 34 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --advisory=FEDORA-2021-227f7f635b`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-227f7f635b

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.

FEDORA-2021-7cd5de24ac has been pushed to the Fedora 33 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --advisory=FEDORA-2021-7cd5de24ac`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-7cd5de24ac

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.

FEDORA-2021-227f7f635b has been pushed to the Fedora 34 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.

FEDORA-2021-7cd5de24ac has been pushed to the Fedora 33 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.

A few days ago I upgraded F31>F33 and encountered the same problem. (After upgrading I did another dnf update, but don't think that's relevant.) The installed version is mailx-12.5-36.fc33, so I would expect to not see this problem anymore.

Alternatives of mail points to the executable:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 May  2 14:33 /etc/alternatives/mail -> /usr/bin/mailx.mailx
but that doesn't help.

I noticed that /usr/bin/mailx is missing, `rpm -Vv mailx` gives:
.........  c /etc/mail.rc
.........  g /usr/bin/Mail
.........  g /usr/bin/mail
missing   g /usr/bin/mailx
.........    /usr/bin/mailx.mailx
.........  g /usr/bin/nail
.........  a /usr/lib/.build-id
.........  a /usr/lib/.build-id/20
.........  a /usr/lib/.build-id/20/d5b5e3384cc4dd77582f9e738510272be44b8a
.........    /usr/share/doc/mailx
.........  d /usr/share/doc/mailx/AUTHORS
.........  d /usr/share/doc/mailx/COPYING
.........  d /usr/share/doc/mailx/README
.........  d /usr/share/man/man1/Mail.1.gz
.........  d /usr/share/man/man1/mail.1.gz
.........  d /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.1.gz
.........  d /usr/share/man/man1/mailx.mailx.1.gz
.........  d /usr/share/man/man1/nail.1.gz

I didn't reinstall mailx (yet), so that I can give you information about the systems current state, should you need it. Though, I can reinstall, to see whether that fixes the problem. Please let me know.

(In reply to ND from comment #10)
> I didn't reinstall mailx (yet), so that I can give you information about the
> systems current state, should you need it. Though, I can reinstall, to see
> whether that fixes the problem. Please let me know.

Thanks, but I don't think it can help. Try reinstalling, I think that will fix it.

Anyway, this looks like a different issue. I'm not sure what's wrong though, I'll try to reproduce it.

Thanks. I reinstalled and that solved my problem.

> Anyway, this looks like a different issue.

I am by no means an expert, but I would think it might be partially the same problem, because also for Russell Odom /usr/bin/mailx was missing.