Re: Configuration file handling (was: RFC: OpenRC as Init System for Debian)
On Fri, 2012-05-11 at 13:41:32 +0100, Roger Leigh wrote:
> On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 11:53:34AM +0100, Steve McIntyre wrote:
> > Jean-Christophe Dubacq wrote:
> > >If dpkg kept a copy of the original configuration file (to be retrieved
> > >at all times), it would be easier to spot local changes.
> > >I use etckeeper to do that, but it's a bit tiresome to isolate all local
> > >changes (I have to save the diffs somewhere) (and a lost hope if you do
> > >install etckeeper late in the workstation life). My git-fu is probably
> > >not good enough (I am probably looking for a "pristine" branch and a
> > >rebased "local" branch used in production).
> >
> > You might be interested in a proposal at UDS this week:
> >
> > https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/foundations-q-dpkg-pristine-conffiles
I've just skimmed over this, and at first sight I'm not planning on
merging something like that into dpkg.
> I would much rather we had a more general mechanism of storing the
> real configuration files (as opposed to just md5s) by dpkg itself,
> which would enable proper merging of admin changes between old and
> new conffiles, and perhaps also allow dpkg to implement ucf-like
> conffile handling (or remove the need for ucf entirely). These
> could be stored under /var/lib/dpkg/conffiles (for example).
This has been discussed before, it's on dpkg's roadmap, there's even
some draft code by Sean Finney, but the semantics where not right. I
started reworking it some time ago, and it's on my short term TODO,
either for 1.16.x or 1.17.x.
regards,
guillem
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