Bug#1283: dpkg and pre-existing but newly-designated control files

[rdm@tad.micro.umn.edu]

   I'm making a package containing many files that were not formerly
   part of any package. For example, /etc/passwd is a control file of
   this package.  Obviously, it's not meant to be installed after the
   system is constructed.  However, I did install it, and found that
   if a control file is pre-existing on the system, yet not formerly
   designated as a control file, it gets silently overwritten. I would
   have expected to go through the prompt sequence for replacing a
   control file.

Two options come to mind -- for safety you probably want to pursue
both:

(1) Have Ian Jackson fix treat this as a bug, and fix it.  [Unless
there's something incredibly important I'm overlooking?]

(2) do something funky with preinst/postinst.  [e.g. cp -a to some
reserved name, then attempt to make sense of things afterwards?]

--
Raul