Created attachment 974927 [details]
Patch for mandb.spec

Description of problem:
After a fresh kickstart installation of Fedora 21, "man -k mansearchstring" is not working. The output is always empty, regardless which argument mansearchstring is used. But I think the command should work on every system with installed manpages.

The reason is that /var/cache/man/ is empty.

Why is /var/cache/man/ empty?

The package man-db which was released up to and including Fedora 20 contains the file /etc/cron.daily/man-db.cron which lets crond to run mandb every day. mandb fills and updates /var/cache/man/ which are neccessary for "man -k" to work.

The package man-db of Fedora 21 is missing this cron configuration file. Instead, it contains the files /usr/lib/systemd/system/mandb.service and /usr/lib/systemd/system/mandb.timer . This means that mandb should be run by systemd instead of crond on Fedora 21.

The problem is that after installation with kickstart mandb.timer is disabled.


I found two possible reasons why mandb.timer is disabled:

Package man-db contains postinstall and preuninstall scripts that enable and start od stop and disable mandb.timer:

======================
# rpm -q --scripts man-db
postinstall scriptlet (using /bin/sh):
/usr/bin/rm -rf /var/cache/man/*
# enable and start timer
rpm -q systemd > /dev/null
if [ "$?" -eq 0 ]; then
    systemctl -q enable mandb.timer
    systemctl start mandb.timer
fi
preuninstall scriptlet (using /bin/sh):
# stop and disable timer
rpm -q systemd > /dev/null
if [ "$?" -eq 0 ]; then
    if [ "$1" -eq 0 ]; then
        systemctl stop mandb.timer
        systemctl -q disable mandb.timer
    fi
fi
======================

Package man-db was installed during kickstart installation.
But /var/log/anaconda/packaging.log tells that man-db was installed before systemd:

05:12:11,015 INFO packaging: man-db-2.6.7.1-12.fc21.x86_64 (2796/7026)
05:12:11,022 INFO packaging: systemd-216-12.fc21.x86_64 (2862/7026)

I don't know the details of the context while kickstart installation but would it be possible that the systemctl commands in postinstall have no effect in this context?
I know that any "systemctl start" command does not work while kickstart installation.
I don't know if a "systemctl enable" command would be working while in kickstart installation, but if it would do in principle, doesn't it require the systemd package because it contains the systemctl command?

Hence I think that the rpm spec file should contain at least the following lines, to ensure that systemd is installed before man-db:

BuildRequires: systemd-units
Requires(post): systemd-units
Requires(preun): systemd-units


Next: /usr/lib/systemd/system/mandb.timer contains the line

WantedBy=multi-user.target

There exists no file
/usr/lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/mandb.timer -> ../mandb.timer .

If I understand the manpage of systemd.unit right, then only the WantedBy declaration or the file in the .wants directory is neccessary.

But after kickstart installation the dependeny is not known:

# systemctl --reverse list-dependencies mandb.timer
mandb.timer


But when I reinstall the package, then the system knows the dependency:

# yum -y reinstall man-db
...
# systemctl --reverse list-dependencies mandb.timer
mandb.timer
● └─multi-user.target
●   └─graphical.target
# systemctl status mandb.timer
● mandb.timer - Daily man-db cache update
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mandb.timer; enabled)
   Active: active (waiting) since Do 2015-01-01 05:58:22 CET; 1h 26min ago


I think that this problem will be solved too if it will be required that systemd is installed before man-db. But this has to be proven with an updated package.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Fedora 21
man-db-2.6.7.1-12.fc21.x86_64

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Fedora 21 using kickstart which requires package man-db.
2. Reboot an check the results:
# systemctl status mandb.timer
# systemctl --reverse list-dependencies mandb.timer
# ls -l /var/cache/man/

Actual results:
mandb.timer is disabled.
No dependency on other units.
/var/cache/man/ is empty.

Expected results:
mandb.timer is enabled.
No dependency on (at least) multi-user.target.
/var/cache/man/ is not empty. (But note: mandb will run for a while, so the directory may be still empty immediate after the first reboot. If the mandb.timer is enabled, check the directory later again.)