XPost: linux.debian.bugs.dist 
 From: guillem@debian.org 
  
 Hi! 
  
 On Tue, 2025-08-12 at 11:35:21 +0200, Ferenc W€€gner wrote: 
 > What I miss here is when dpkg sets the DPKG_ROOT variable to something 
 > non-empty.  From the text I understand that dpkg sets DPKG_ROOT to the 
 > empty string when --root and --instdir are not set (so "normally"). 
 > Furthermore, dpkg also sets DPKG_ROOT to the empty string when --root or 
 > --instdir is set, *unless* --force-script-chrootless is also specified 
 > (because the maintainer scripts are run in a chroot then).  So it would 
 > seem sensible if dpkg set DPKG_ROOT to the value of --instdir (or 
 > --root) if either of them is specified, *and* --force-script-chrootless 
 > is also specified.  But the text does not say that, instead it contrasts 
 > DPKG_ROOT being empty with instdir being non-empty.  This is unexpected, 
 > and I don't even understand instdir in the "Internal environment" 
 > context where this paragraph resides. 
 > 
 > I'm not sure I managed to express my difficulty any better now... 
  
 Ah! I think I see what you mean now. Would the attached patch fix the 
 confusing text? 
  
 (I also noticed that there's no documentation for dpkg honoring 
 DPKG_ROOT and DPKG_ADMINDIR being set when it runs, which was a 
 recentish behavior change, will document that too.) 
  
 Thanks, 
 Guillem 
  
 diff --git i/man/dpkg.pod w/man/dpkg.pod 
 index 8349f0afd..001373b75 100644 
 --- i/man/dpkg.pod 
 +++ w/man/dpkg.pod 
 @@ -1438,8 +1438,8 @@ During normal operation, this variable is empty. 
  When installing packages into a different B, B 
  normally invokes maintainer scripts using L and leaves 
  this variable empty, but if B<--force-script-chrootless> is 
 -specified then the L call is skipped and B 
 -is non-empty. 
 +specified then the L call is skipped and 
 +this variable is set to B (which will be non-empty). 
  
  =item B 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)