Re: IMPORTANT: What can we do about the base package?

["Brian C. White" <bcwhite@verisim.com>]

> > How about releasing an update of the base package that contains no files,
> > but instead runs MAKEDEV to generate the files in /dev? Then after you
> > install it, you can unistall it safely, without killing /dev.
> 
> Since it's been pointed out that this would remove any special permissions
> or ownerships on files in /dev, here's an a woraround:
> 
> Make an update of base that contains no files. It has a preinst that
> archives /dev in some way [1] (cp -a /dev /dev-dpkg.old, or a tar file in /tmp or
> something). It has a postinst that restores /dev. I believe that this should
> work without trashing /dev or modifying it in any way.

Or, maybe...  Build a base package that _does_ include all the /dev files,
but upon removal it archives all those files during "prerm" and puts them
all back again during "postrm".  Thus, whenever this new base package
is removed, dpkg will delete all the files in /dev and then they will
be immediately restored without dpkg's knowledge.

My question is...  Can you write to a file system if its underlying
device has been deleted?

                                          Brian
                                 ( bcwhite@verisim.com )

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