Re: Bug#201023: dosemu: purging doesmu wipes out all user data under /var/lib/dosemu)

[Stephen Stafford <ssta@pol.ac.uk>]

On Tue, Jul 15, 2003 at 08:38:27AM +1000, Herbert Xu wrote:
> Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> > 
> > mjg59@vavatch:~$ sudo touch /usr/share/doc/hello/test
> > mjg59@vavatch:~$ sudo dpkg --purge hello
> > (Reading database ... 121366 files and directories currently installed.)
> > Removing hello ...
> > dpkg - warning: while removing hello, directory `/usr/share/doc/hello'
> > not empty so not removed.
> 
> If you're implying that the hello package leaves behind a
> /usr/share/doc/hello directory after purging, that would be
> a bug.

Quite honestly, I fail to see why.  If the user has chosen to put data there
then that should be respected.  I have a file full of notes in
/usr/share/doc/debian-policy (simply because that was a convenient place to
put it), I'd be severely pissed off if some maintainer script were to remove
that file (even on --purge).

My interpretation is that --purge is to get rid of any and all files *owned*
by the package, including any conffiles.  If the directory is empty after
that, then fine, remove it.  If it isn;t, then it shouldn't.

Cheers,

Stephen