[KLUG Members] can't apt-get remove phpwiki

[Jamie McCarthy]

rick at ricksweb.info (Richard Harding) writes:

> Now I can't install apache-perl because of dependency problems and 
> phpwiki installed without it just fine so I am really confused why it 
> won't get out of my system without this error.

Huh.  Not sure, I haven't seen this before.  Possibly phpwiki
required a package which was automatically installed, which
conflicts with apache-perl (maybe an older version?).  Or, based on
the error you described, maybe the phpwiki package has screwed up
its dependencies somehow, related to apache-perl.

> Any ideas how I can remove this thing from the system?

There are a few ways.  The error you describe:

> > invoke-rc.d: unknown initscript, /etc/init.d/apache-perl not found.
> > dpkg: error processing phpwiki (--remove):
> >  subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 100

sounds like the package is misconfigured, trying to run an
initscript that isn't there.  My first guesses as to why that would
happend are (1) you manually deleted it, or (2) the package requires
another package but didn't list it as a dependency.

My guess is number two, that phpwiki really does require the
apache-perl package, but didn't list it as a dependency.  Somehow it
managed to install anyway.  And now when you try to uninstall, it's
trying to run '/etc/init.d/apache-perl stop' so it can do a clean
shutdown before removing itself, but since you haven't installed
apache-perl, that fails.

The first thing I'd try is 'apt-get -f install' and see if that
fixes anything;  if so, try the remove again, maybe it'll work,
who knows.

Assuming that doesn't work, I might try fooling the remove script in
a small way, to get it to continue.  You do have _some_ kind of
Apache running, I assume;  shut it down manually first, and then
add in a phony script at /etc/init.d/apache-perl that does nothing.
Maybe 'ln -s /bin/true /etc/init.d/apache-perl'?  Or maybe symlink
your real apache shutdown script to that filename?  Then try running
the apt-get remove again, see if it runs cleanly.

Sadly, Apache is a bit of a mess, and it's probably the hardest
application to manage with any package management system. 
Especially for those of us who want to mess around with different
technologies that all require their own modules in the webserver. 
It's the one app that I don't let Debian install;  I wrote a script
to install my custom-built Apache into /usr/local/apache from
tarballs.  I guess it's the price to pay for what is really a very
flexible, powerful and fast server.
-- 
  Jamie McCarthy
 http://mccarthy.vg/
  jamie at mccarthy.vg