Bug#527641: Package installation overwrites /etc/default/console-setup without warning

[Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl>]

On Wednesday 20 May 2009, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> To fix it, you have to:
> 1/ document in the file that it's auto-updated based on the debconf
> infos and that dpkg-reconfigure console-setup is recommended to update
> it 2/ use ucf or something similar to detect if the file has been
> edited by the user since last generation and avoid overwriting the file
> in that case (ucf like dpkg let the user choose what to do in that
> case)

It sounds like c-s is using debconf as a registry. If that is the case, it 
is just plain wrong. Configuration scripts should read the current 
settings from the configuration file(s) and set the defaults for debconf 
questions based on that, and not just display the current value in the 
debconf database.

From debconf-devel(7):
       [...] The issue  to  watch out  for here is that debconf is not
       intended to be, and must not be used as a registry. This is unix
       after all, and programs are configured by files in /etc, not by
       some nebulous debconf database (that is only a cache anyway and
       might get blown away). [...]

See also the example under "Config file handling" in the same man page.

Cheers,
FJP