Re: policy suggestion (seeking discussion)
On Sun, Apr 26, 1998 at 01:23:06PM -0400, Carl Mummert wrote:
> Don't flame me for this if it is obviously wrong..
> it doesn't SEEM so to me...
>
> Question: when does dpkg write the /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list ???
>
> Situation: Package X has something in the post-inst script which
> the developer knows will create file F, which dpkg will
> not know about (known problem).
>
> Suggestion: Package X could, if the files already exist at this point,
> include 'cat "F" >> /var/lib/dpkg/info/X.list ' in the
> post-inst list. This would associate the newly-created file
> with the newly-installed package, and would prevent the
> buildup of cruft which otherwise would develop when package
> X is removed.
>
> The postinst script is the perfect time to do this, because
> this script knows with 100% certainty which files it creates.
>
> Example file: /etc/gpm/conf is created by an "echo" command in the
> post-int of gpm.
>
>
> I have tried this by adding (by hand) a new package to (...)/status and
> a corresponding lists file to the info dir. When I ran dpkg --remove
> on the package, the files listed went away.
>
> Caveat: I don't fully understand how this fits in with the 'conffiles'
> issue.
I'm not a dpkg expert, but AFAIK modifying directly the dpkg databases (yes,
almost everything under var/lib/dpkg are dpkg databases) is a Wrong Thing (TM)
In the current implementation those databases are ASCII files, but that
may change (and surely _will_ change) in the future, so relying in that
format will cause compatibility problems. The right way to solve that issue
is by adding an(other) option to dpkg.
Thanks,
--
Enrique Zanardi ezanardi@ull.es
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