Re: What should postrm purge actually do?
ke, 2008-06-04 kello 13:38 +0200, Jeremiah C. Foster kirjoitti:
> I think removing log files is a bad practice. A user may need to keep
> those log files (by law for example) and unbeknownst to them, debian
> has removed them when they removed web server X to replace it with
> web server Y.
In that case they should not purge the packages. Note that package
maintenance tools don't purge by default, just remove.
There are also cases where _not_ removing log files can result in legal
liability: for example, in some parts of the world, it is not
permissible to store mail logs for more than some periods of time. (I
think. I can't find a reference right now, though.)
I don't think Debian Policy is where we should make sure all Debian
systems obey all local laws. This is one case where, I think, we need to
have sysadmins do that part themselves. Maintaining an operating system
always requires some expertese and those maintaining Debian systems need
to know the difference between remove and purge.
> Log files should be out of bounds, even for --purge.
Doing that would mean log files never get cleaned up, unless the
sysadmin realizes that they need to it manually. That's not a good
situation, either.
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