pkg/59879: gnats: mkdb fails with: chown: not found, and: gnatsd.user_access: No such file or directory

[hpaluch%seznam.cz@localhost]

>Number:         59879
>Category:       pkg
>Synopsis:       gnats: mkdb fails with: chown: not found, and: gnatsd.user_access: No such file or directory
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    pkg-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Fri Jan 02 17:55:00 +0000 2026
>Originator:     Henryk Paluch
>Release:        current 20260101060018Z, pkgsrc head 20260101
>Organization:
N/A
>Environment:
NetBSD nbsd-curr-gnats.example.com 11.99.4 NetBSD 11.99.4 (GENERIC) #0: Thu Jan  1 06:00:18 UTC 2026  mkrepro%mkrepro.NetBSD.org@localhost:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC amd64
>Description:
Tested gnats version: gnats-4.2.0nb5

After pkgsrc installation of gnats I'm advised to run mkdb, but it fails with two errors:

root# su - gnats /usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb default

/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: domkdir: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: domkdir: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: domkdir: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: domkdir: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: domkdir: chown: not found
Copying default files from /usr/pkg/share/gnats/defaults
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: docp: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: docp: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: docp: chown: not found
cp: /usr/pkg/share/gnats/defaults/gnatsd.user_access: No such file or directory
Can't copy file /usr/pkg/share/gnats/defaults/gnatsd.user_access to /var/db/gnats/gnatsdb/gnats-adm/gnatsd.user_access, exiting


>How-To-Repeat:
Install gnats either from binary package or source. I used source:

cd ~/pkgsrc/databases/gnats
make install

Install notice:                                                                                                         
===========================================================================
$NetBSD: MESSAGE,v 1.7 2005/08/27 22:24:02 recht Exp $
                                                                                                                        
See http://www.gnu.org/software/gnats/ for the official web page
and don't forget to run /usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb default                                                             
as user gnats to create the default database.                                                                                                         
Add the following line to /etc/inetd.conf to activate GNATS:   
    support stream tcp nowait gnats /usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/gnatsd gnatsd
                                                            
Add something like this into the crontab to process incoming bug reports:
    */5 * * * * /usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/queue-pr -r      
                              
To accept PRs by mail you'll need some new mail aliases too, e.g.
        gnats-admin:    postmaster
        bugs:           "| /usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/queue-pr -q"
        query-pr:       "| /usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mail-query"

===========================================================================


Run command below to create default database:

root# su - gnats /usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb default

/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: domkdir: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: domkdir: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: domkdir: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: domkdir: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: domkdir: chown: not found
Copying default files from /usr/pkg/share/gnats/defaults
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: docp: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: docp: chown: not found
/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb: docp: chown: not found
cp: /usr/pkg/share/gnats/defaults/gnatsd.user_access: No such file or directory
Can't copy file /usr/pkg/share/gnats/defaults/gnatsd.user_access to /var/db/gnats/gnatsdb/gnats-adm/gnatsd.user_access, exiting


>Fix:
First error "chown: not found" is caused by custom PATH set in mkdb that does not include "/sbin" where is "chmod" located. Proposed fix:

--- usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb.old      2026-01-02 17:36:35.600476596 +0000
+++ usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb  2026-01-02 17:42:59.172205964 +0000
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 # along with GNU GNATS; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
 # <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
-PATH="/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats:/usr/pkg/sbin:/usr/pkg/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:${PATH}"
+PATH="/usr/pkg/libexec/gnats:/usr/pkg/sbin:/usr/pkg/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:${PATH}"
 export PATH
 
 GNATS_USER=gnats

To fix later bug: "cp: /usr/pkg/share/gnats/defaults/gnatsd.user_access: No such file or directory" we need to copy needed files from example folder to target folder (so it should be enough to add that step to installation message):

cp /usr/pkg/share/examples/gnats/*_access /usr/pkg/share/gnats/defaults/

And rerun as root commands below:

rm -rf /var/db/gnats/gnatsdb # required to remove half-finished remains of gnatsdb
su - gnats /usr/pkg/libexec/gnats/mkdb default

Copying default files from /usr/pkg/share/gnats/defaults

(finishes without error)