Bug#322348: /etc/init.d/apache script wasn't removed by postrm

["A. Costa" <agcosta@gis.net>]

On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 18:59:12 +1000
Adam Conrad <adconrad@0c3.net> wrote:

> > Seconded.  It's not installed on my system:
> > 
> >     % dlocate -s apache | grep Status
> >     Status: deinstall ok config-files
> 
> Uhh, sure it's installed.  Note the "config-files" state.  You "removed"
> the package, but didn't "purge" it.  (dpkg --purge apache, or purge it
> in whatever package frontend you use)

According to this definition you're right:

	not-installed

	    No files are installed from the package, it has no config 
	    files left, it uninstalled cleanly if it ever was installed.

	-- dpkg technical manual 
	   1.2 The dpkg status area
	   /usr/share/doc/libapt-pkg-doc/dpkg-tech.html/ch1.html#s1.2

It logically follows that the opposite of "not-installed", where NO
files from the package are present, would be all or some files, even
just one.

Yet given the next definition (from the same source)
I'd be correct:

	installed

	    All files for the package are installed, and the 
	    configuration was also successful.

It logically follows from the quantifier 'ALL' that just one file
missing would mean the package was not installed, just as 51 cards make
an incomplete deck.  

Seems like the above definitions of 'installed' and 'not-installed'
are merely _contrary_, and fail to conform to the common usage of the
prefix "not-" as a _contradictory_.

Note that my apache 'Status' field quoted above uses the term
'deinstall', which the 'dpkg technical manual' alludes to once,
but does not define.  Here's a definition:

	% man dpkg | grep -A 2 -n deinstall | head -n 3
	75:       deinstall
	76:              The  package  is  selected  for  deinstallation (i.e. we want to
	77-              remove all files, except configuration files).

By that usage we were both being vague -- the package wasn't
'installed', (since all files weren't there), and it wasn't
'not-installed', (since some were), it was 'deinstalled'.

Unfortunately the prefix "de-" in this context has the common usage
of "reversing or undoing", which in this context is virtually what
the common usage of "not-" means.  Oy vey.

Aside from that...

Perhaps you were implying that I ought to have purged 'apache'
-- I usually don't use 'purge', as old config files sometimes have
system specific information that comes in handy.

Lastly, for anyone reading this who knows, a question:

	Does the Debian distro's definition of a "config file" include executables?

(My definition would be restricted to inert data, and never code; so
'/etc/fstab' would be a 'config file', but any setup or maintenance
program, such as '/etc/init.d/apache', would not be.)