Ansgar Burchardt wrote: > Sven Joachim wrote: > > Bob Proulx wrote: > >> I am hoping to understand the "obsolete" flag on conffiles in the dpkg > >> status file. There are many packages that include this flag at the > >> end of the line. For example: > [...] > > > > They are obsolete because they no longer exist in the package. It is > > the package maintainer's task to deal with them (e.g. remove them if > > they are unmodified and no longer needed). Unfortunately, this is often > > not done. Ah... This makes things clear. I had missed it. > > When they are no longer shipped in the package that used to contain > > them; dpkg does not currently remove obsolete conffiles unless that > > package is purged, see #330256¹. > > dpkg-maintscript-helper(1) also has a good explanation what happens and > why. It also makes dealing with them (in maintainer scripts) easier. Also very useful information. It would seem that packages that have left unmodified obsolete conffiles behind as lint, especially in init.d, are worth a bug report about them. This gets in the way of upgrades such as moving to dependency based booting and from my perspective one of the strongest strengths of Debian is the ability to upgrade. Thanks! Bob
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