Re: Bits from the release team: the plans for etch

[Gabor Gombas <gombasg@sztaki.hu>]

On Thu, Oct 27, 2005 at 11:54:10AM +0200, Jonas Meurer wrote:

> but we try to make packages better for our users, and one issue in doing
> so is dealing with system accounts.
> if a package creates a system user who is intended to be used by the
> package only, the package should remove the user at purge time. if the
> administrator uses the system user for other tasks, it's his/her
> decision, and dealing with the situation is 'administrators job'.

So, how can the administrator tell dpkg "do _not_ remove this account
even if some package's postrm tries to purge it"? If there would be a
method to mark some accounts out-of-reach for automatic removal, that
would settle this issue I think.

> the current thread shows, that both opinions exist and that both
> situations need to be supported. therefore i suggest to add a debconf
> question to adduser, to ask the local sysadmin for his/her preference.

But that question should be asked at package _removal_ time. I surely
would not remember what debconf questions have I answered two years ago
when I installed the package.

Gabor

-- 
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     MTA SZTAKI Computer and Automation Research Institute
                Hungarian Academy of Sciences
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