Re: Purging database packages

[Raul Miller <rdm@test.legislate.com>]

>   >I thought it only implied one bit of configuration information somewhere
>   >under /etc/.

Oliver Elphick <olly@lfix.co.uk> wrote:
> Yes, but this is a particular case of the general problem of interactive
> installation scripts.  Furthermore, this particular case is one that is a 
> bit extreme: on installing a database package, you decide what you will
> do with as yet non-existent data in the event that you one day decide to
> purge the package.  If I don't ask the question at installation time, how
> is this busy sysadmin to know, or at least, remember, that this particular
> package contains a utility to preset the answer to the question that will
> in any case be asked by the postrm script?  If all packages use a similar
> mechanism, he at least has a chance...

Think simple, think direct, think "this isn't a user interface issue,
it's a documentation issue".

Put a test in the postrm, and skip the whole question and removal
thing if it succeeds.  The test should be for the name of the package
existing at the begining of a line in some file.

Clearly document it (both what it is, and the sort of case where it
would be important) in the package's debian-specific notes and you're
done.

Like you say: this is an extreme case.  It doesn't warrant being
changed very often, and it certainly isn't the sort of thing you
want to change without careful deliberation.

-- 
Raul


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