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Re: FWD: When conffiles get cut adrift



On Fri, Sep 06, 2002 at 01:36:03PM -0400, Joey Hess wrote:
> It it a package's job to deal with moving a conffile if the conffile is
> renamed.
> 
> In the more general case though when a conffile is not renamed but is
> removed from a package, I do not know whether the package or dpkg is at
> fault if the old conffile is left behind on upgrade. Probably the
> package, as dpkg cannot know if this conffile was really renamed or not.
> 
> 

I would think that it is the responsibility of the package maintainer
to handle this situation. 

I would suggest that in this case:

# old-postrm upgrade new-version 

from
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-maintainerscripts.html#s-mscriptsinstact

that the maintainer should check for an upgrade to a version in which
the conffile no longer exists, and use debconf to ask the user wether
or not they would like the conffile removed. In this way, finely
crafter settings could be saved, and the user can be made aware of
existing cruft. 

it seems that policy does not handle the case in which a conffile is
removed from a package, unless you consider upgrading a form of
removal, in which 

"# configuration files must be preserved when the package is removed,"

would imply that the package should leave the cruft around. 


-- 
michael cardenas | lead software engineer | lindows.com | hyperpoem.net

"The devils of truth steal the souls of the free."
- Trent Reznor

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