On Thu, Sep 26, 2002 at 11:01:36AM +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote: > In chiark.mail.debian.devel, you wrote: > >On Thu, Sep 26, 2002 at 09:50:00AM +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote: > >> Didn't we have this discussion recently? I'm sure there are cases where > >> a deleted file is treated differently from an empty file by the > >> application.=20 > > > >So list them. > > The thread "When bind9 reinstalls, no db.root" > (http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2002/debian-devel-200208/msg01375.html > onwards) suggested that snmpd would be an issue. Yes, mentioning that was my fault. It's an issue, because it a) works, b) (because the init.d skripts _do_ check for file existence before starting the daemons, and c) it is easy to do on ump-teen machines one has to set up over the time As a matter of fact, after reading the manpages, this appears to be rather broken behaviour, because it a) is not required [to have these files] for the agent to operate and respond to requests. (from both snmpd.conf(5) and snmptrapd.conf(5)) b) /etc/defaults/snmpd exists and contains SNMPDRUN and TRAPDRUN variables c) conflicts with the more intuitive notion of --reinstall <==> --purge && --install > We'd also need to educate users that rm /etc/foo and cp /dev/null > /etc/foo will behave differently. At the moment I delete stuff in cron.d > that I don't want. Some of these seem to be marked as conffiles, but I > think expecting them not to come back on package reinstall is fairly > legitimate. aj already said it: people deleteing random files have to prepare (in either case) to be shot into the foot (myself included). What is needed thus? A fscking simple method to disable this (and other) stuff. At install time. Independent of file existance. That works. Yes, sometimes I just go over the top of my head ... Regards, David -- Afrika kommt nach Europa. Das ist der Kontinentaldrift. Da kann man auch mit einem neuen Asylgesetz nichts dagegen machen. Das sollte mal wer denen von der FPÖ erklären! -- Dieter Nuhr (www.nuhr.de) in der Wiener Remise, 2002-08-02
Attachment:
pgpqsBK2PHbgo.pgp
Description: PGP signature