Re: Is this normal?

["Steve M. Robbins" <steven.robbins@videotron.ca>]

On Sat, Jul 21, 2001 at 06:55:38PM +0200, Sander Smeenk (CistroN Medewerker) wrote:
> 
> Hey,
> 
> I noticed some leftover .dpkg-new files some time ago, and did a find.
> 
> [18:49] [root@knopje:/tmp] # find / -type f -iname "*.dpkg*" | wc -l
>      31
> 
> There's only one entry in there that is not a leftover dpkg thingy.
> All the 30 others are leftover dpkg-{old,dist,devert-tmp} files...
> 
> Now, should I make a cronjob to rm these files, or should dpkg do that?
> IMHO dpkg should do that :)
> 
> Is anyone else expiriencing the same weird thing? Or is it me?

What you describe is normal, as I understand it.
I think the idea is for you to examine the files and merge them by hand.
I have a daily cronjob that notices these files and emails me about them.

More importantly, the script will keep a backup copy of files in /etc,
allowing easy inspection of "recent changes", when something goes wrong.

I think this script is of general interest, and offer it as a
candidate for the proposed "useful debian bits" package that was
discussed this week.  [Bcc'd to those involved.]

-Steve


#!/bin/sh
#
# Save a copy of any file in /etc that has been changed.

set -e

IDIR=/etc
BDIR=/var/local/backups

test -d $BDIR || mkdir -p -m755 $BDIR
cd $BDIR

for file in `find $IDIR -type f`; do

    case $file in
	*~) rm $file; continue;;
	/etc/modules.conf.old) continue;;
	/etc/.serial.conf.old) continue;;
	/etc/sgml/*.old) continue;;
	/etc/webmin/webmin.acl.bak) continue;;
	*bak|*.dpkg*|*.old) echo "Check $file"; continue;;
	/etc/ld.so.cache|/etc/mtab|/etc/adjtime) continue;;
    esac

    # do nothing if file is empty
    test -s $file || continue

    if [ -e ./$file ]; then
	cmp -s $file ./$file && continue
	savelog -c 15 ./$file >/dev/null
    else
	dir=`dirname $file`
	test -d ./$dir || mkdir -p ./$dir
    fi
    cp -p $file ./$file
done



-- 
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by Taxi to the Airport,
by Frontdoor to the Taxi,
by throwing back the blanket and laying down the legs ...
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