Re: Seeking aptitude flag to 'do not over write configuration file'

[Bjørn Michelsen <bjorn@bmichelsen.no>]

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 10:11:04AM +0200, Brent Clark wrote:

Hey there,

> I would like to know, when you do an 'aptitide safe-upgrade'
> 
> And then you get the following example
> 
> Configuration file `/etc/apache2/sites-available/default'
>  ==> Modified (by you or by a script) since installation.
>  ==> Package distributor has shipped an updated version.
>    What would you like to do about it ?  Your options are:
>     Y or I  : install the package maintainer's version
>     N or O  : keep your currently-installed version
>       D     : show the differences between the versions
>       Z     : start a shell to examine the situation
>  The default action is to keep your current version.
> *** default (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
> 
> Is there a flag to skip this section and accept no as the default? I.e. Do not over write the configuration.

The following should do the trick

  apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confold" upgrade

If you'd like more information, have a go at the dpkg man page,
especially 

  confnew: If a conffile has been modified  always  install
  the   new   version   without   prompting,   unless   the
  --force-confdef is also  specified,  in  which  case  the
  default action is preferred.

  confold:  If a conffile has been modified always keep the
  old version without prompting, unless the --force-confdef
  is  also  specified,  in which case the default action is
  preferred.

  confdef: If a conffile has been  modified  always  choose
  the default action. If there is no default action it will
  stop  to  ask  the   user   unless   --force-confnew   or
  --force-confold is also been given, in which case it will
  use that to decide the final action.


Hope that solves your problem.

-- 
Sincerely,
Bjorn Michelsen