debmake and policy

[Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>]

[ moving to debian-policy ]

On 1 Sep 1999, Manoj Srivastava wrote:

> Hi,
> >>"Santiago" == Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es> writes:
> 
>  Santiago> Policy has not always been clear about conffiles vs configuration
>  Santiago> files. Fortunately this is expected to improve some day.
> 
>         Policy, and dpkg, have always been very clear about what makes
>  someting a conffile. [...]

Sorry for the misunderstanding, this is not what I meant.

I meant that policy has usually been ambiguous about conffiles and
configuration files. Sometimes it says "conffiles" when it should say
"configuration files" and sometimes it says "configuration files"  when it
should say "conffiles".

I think there is a policy proposal which addresses this, that's
why I said this is expected to improve some day.

Another problem with current policy is that there is not always a
"documented procedure" to modify certain files.

And yet another problem is that some files are conffiles in some packages
and just configuration files in other packages having the same
functionality (for example, I think /etc/aliases is a conffile in some
MTAs and it isn't in others).

I agree debmake should not be kept in its current state forever,
but: Should not we fix all these little things also?

Thanks.

-- 
 "e4b808ba6964bf4db4c0797105b8582d" (a truly random sig)