Re: COAS or linuxconf as an admin tool for Debian

[Stefan Gybas <cab@studbox.uni-stuttgart.de>]

Michael Sobolev wrote:

> OK, my understanding of policy says that only the program that uses this
> configuration file may change it.  Or a special program created for this very
> purpose and which is provided by the same package that provides the program
> with this configuration file.  Am I wrong?

Well, I'm not sure. You are refering to section 4.7 where Policy says so,
but I guess the meaning is that a {post,pre}{inst,rm} may not change another
package's config file.

Linuxconf is in this respect not different from vi, emacs, perl, sed, ...
Each of these programs can change the config file from another package, but
_only if root tells them to do so_.

BTW, the final situation should be that a package provides a module for a
configuration utility, so the Policy is not violated any longer.

> The first time I run linuxconf, it changed a lot of files I did not thinkg it
> would.  For example, /etc/hosts.

Linuxconf should only change /etc/hosts if you make changes to the host
database and the click on "save". I've never used an older version of
Linuxconf, maybe there was a bug at this time.

I guess I have to write a litte FAQ about Linuxconf on Debian as I always
receive these questions about "Linuxconf taking control of everything" and
"Once you have used Linuxconf you can't switch back to vi".

-- 
Stefan Gybas