Bug#224828: Split config file is worrying...
Package: exim4-config
Version: 4.24-3
Severity: wishlist
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[ Yes, I know about the /etc/exim4/exim.conf override, and I'm using
it. ]
I wish the split-out config file would go away. I have read the
rationale for it in README.Debian, and, honestly, those sound like
drawbacks!
For simple configurations such as with just debconf, you won't touch
anything in /etc/exim4. Or, if you do, the changes will be very small,
and merging the changes will be trivial. And upgrades will be infrequent
(with stable releasing every two years or so). So the first bullet
point, "it means less work for you when upgrading" seems to not apply to
these users.
For more complicated configurations, those changes --- possibly even
including new or removed files --- happening without ANY prompting and
any chance to merge your changes --- is very worrying. It seems quite
likely to break things. Honestly, with how likely it is to break
something, I believe it goes against the spirit of Policy 10.7.3.
Because of this, people like me who are making extensive changes to the
default config can't use the split-out config.
As to the second point, that seems likely to break things, too. exim
config files are too inter-dependent to have random packages adding
things in. It'll probably work with the debconf defaults. I doubt it'll
work with much else.
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