Re: Bug#1283: dpkg and pre-existing but newly-designated control files
Bruce Perens writes:
> I'm making a package containing many files that were not formerly part
> of any package. For example, /etc/passwd is a control file of this package.
> Obviously, it's not meant to be installed after the system is constructed.
> However, I did install it, and found that if a control file is pre-existing
> on the system, yet not formerly designated as a control file, it gets silently
> overwritten. I would have expected to go through the prompt sequence for
> replacing a control file.
You're right, and this is a bug. I believe it's fixed in 0.93.71.
rdm@tad.micro.umn.edu writes:
> Two options come to mind -- for safety you probably want to pursue
> both:
>
> (1) Have Ian Jackson fix treat this as a bug, and fix it. [Unless
> there's something incredibly important I'm overlooking?]
>
> (2) do something funky with preinst/postinst. [e.g. cp -a to some
> reserved name, then attempt to make sense of things afterwards?]
I don't think that latter should be necessary.
Ian.
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