Re: lintian and (non-)conffiles in /etc
>> Agreed. Then don't you think that the lintian' message is
>> inappropriate?
>
> no, /etc files shipped IN the package, must be conffiles, no
> question.
>
> files created by the maintainer scripts in /etc but not shipped in the
> package at all do not have to be conffiles, but lintian won't know
> about those and thus will not warn you about them.
What about this:
1. preinst backs up an existing /etc/foo.
2. /etc/foo, not marked as a conffile, gets overwritten.
3. postinst merges in changes, or prompts the user, or something.
It looks to me like the only reason to have conffiles at all is
because dpkg can tell if a conffile's been edited, so if a user needs
to be prompted before overwriting. Otherwise it could be done with
1-3 above. Is that basically correct?
--
Itai Zukerman <http://www.math-hat.com/~zukerman/>
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