Re: dpkg can't remove directories
On 11-Jun-02, 18:44 (CDT), Brian May <bam@snoopy.apana.org.au> wrote:
> On Tue, 2002-06-11 at 13:45, grante@visi.com wrote:
> > How does dpkg decide which files it "knows about"? dpkg -L
> > lists all of them after the install, and dpkg -c lists them in
> > the .deb file.
>
> dpkg knows about any conffiles, it doesn't know about any config files.
>
> Config files (as opposed to conffiles) are created in the package
> maintainer scripts, and not by dpkg.
Just to be completely nit-picky, Policy distinguishes thusly:
Configuration files are files that the admin may want to modify, and
should not be overwritten or lost when the package is upgraded.
Conffiles are a files that are handled specially by dpkg, in a way that
is useful in meeting the requirements Policy imposes on configuration
files. However, there are limitations that means conffile handling is
not suitable for all configuration files.
Almost[1] all conffiles are configuration files, while many
configuration files are not conffiles. I don't think that "config file"
is a widely understood to mean those configuaration files that are not
conffiles; at least I wouldn't take it that way.
As far as knowing which files need to be removed by your script,
versus relying on dpkg, it's easy: if the file exists *in the deb*,
it's dpkg's. If the file is created during the install, or by normal
operation of the program (logging, DB files), then the maintainer
scripts need to deal with it. (Although in the case of DB files, one
should ask, even on a purge.)
Steve
[1] I think the conffile mechanism has also been used for other files
that need to be maintained across upgrades (such as game high-score
files), but I don't know if that is still done.
--
Steve Greenland
The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating
system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the
world. -- seen on the net
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