On Mon, Aug 16, 2004 at 04:46:44PM +0200, Jonas Meurer wrote: > On 16/08/2004 Steve Greenland wrote: > > [...] > > The trouble is there are two POVs on this, and the package maintainers > > are stuck between them. If they don't remove every last trace of a > > package, including any directories, then they get bugs filed. When they > > fix those bugs, then the other group files bugs. > > > > [...] > > If enough people disagree with this, then we need to change policy so > > that NO log files are to be removed. It's unreasonable to expect package > > maintainers to be able to guess which log files are "important" and > > which aren't, because no choice is going to make everyone, or even a > > majority, happy. > > sure, but there's a 'hard' way to go (rm -rf /var/log/<foo>), and a > digressed one (rmdir /var/log/<foo>). > > maybe a compromise would be, to disallow logdir removal at purge time, > as long as subdirs exist in it. > > this would be a clear policy: if admins want their logs to stay at > packages purge, they have to create own subdirs for this. Or how about the current policy: if you don't want your logfiles removed, DON'T PURGE THE PACKAGE. I know the finger-macros for package removal are likely bound to 'dpkg --purge <foo>', but there's an old rule: "while working as root, sit on your hands before pressing enter". > anyway, it's a much more common policy than 'store your logs out of > /var/log/<foo> if you want them to be kept'. > > It's just reasonable for admins to store apache logs in /var/log/apache, > even if they're manually created. And it's explicitly stated in Policy that a package shall remove it's logfiles on --purge, wherever they may be. "So don't do that, then". If you want to keep those logfiles for some reason, then copy them somewhere else before you go gutting the package. > another solution: add debconf questions about logdir removal at purge > time in packages storing logs. No. No no nooooooo. And did I mention, "NO!". There's too many frigging Debconf questions around already. > it is the way many packages currently manage database removal. Yeah, and I think it's a bad idea there, too. It only exists in a couple of my packages because I put it in there when I was young and naive (and on the example of others), but I now firmly believe that if you don't want your data / logfiles / whatever else silently removed, don't --purge. -r is shorter to type, too. - Matt
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