Re: postinst scripts failing because a new conffile wasn't accepted: Is it a bug?
[Frank Küster]
> assume that an update to a package brings in a changed conffile, and
> because the local admin had changed the conffile, he is asked, and he
> refuses to accept the changed version.
>
> Because one of the changes in the new version was crucial for the
> function of the program, the postinst script fails to initialize it, and
> the whole installation process fails.
My proposal to avoid such problem is to implement multilevel
configuration, where the package default configuration and the local
overrides are stored in separate files, making sure local
configuration do not affect changes to the package default, and thus
no question is asked during upgrade.
I talked a bit about this during debconf5. Have a look at
<URL:http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2005/debconf5/mpeg/2005-07-12/06-Writing_Enterprise_Ready_Software-Petter_Reinholdtsen.mpeg>
and
<URL:http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2005/debconf5/mpeg/2005-07-16/12-Debian_Edu_Upgrading_a_Preconfigured_CDD-Petter_Reinholdtsen.mpeg>,
as well as the slides available from
<URL:http://wiki.debian.org/?DebConf5Talks>.
Moving tetex to such mechanism would require some work. :)
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