Re: NEVER remove log files without asking

[Thomas Bushnell BSG <tb@becket.net>]

Matthew Palmer <mpalmer@debian.org> writes:

> It would be kinda cool on occasion, but I think the current rule is
> practically sufficient -- remove makes the package inoperative by deleting
> the "static" parts of a package, purge should get rid of all traces of the
> package from your system.

I'm not sure that this is as obviously clear as you might think.
Surely removing emacs shouldn't delete every file that emacs created.
It shouldn't even delete files that emacs automatically created--like,
say, autosaves and backups.

But, suppose we had a lisp system which would sometimes automatically
compile .l into .o files.  Whatever deletes the .l should delete the
.o, or maybe the .o should stay till purge--or maybe the lisp system
(and not the package installing the .l) should delete the .o, since it
was the lisp system that created it.

I think the moral is that it requires judgment to apply the rule in
Policy, and it can't just be "get rid of all traces".  That's the
right starting point, but it clearly isn't the right ending point in
at least some cases.

Thomas