Bug#947915: release-notes: Suggest cleaning up leftover *.dpkg-old etc. config files
On Thu, 2 Jan 2020 17:28:07 +0000
Justin B Rye <justin.byam.rye@gmail.com> wrote:
> Karl O. Pinc wrote:
> >>> + files; <link linkend="configuration-changes">old
> >>> versions</link>
> >>> + of configuration files, versions supplied by the package
> >>> + maintainers, etc. Removing leftover files from previous
> >>> upgrades,
> >>> + before performing another upgrade, can avoid confusion.
> Given that you're
> proposing this text as pre-upgrade advice, but that it's also true for
> any other time, we might as well just say
>
> Removing files left over from previous upgrades
> can avoid confusion.
Agreed. Shorter is better.
> >> It might fit best in 4.7. "Preparing for the next release".
> >
> > I like to leave the leftover files laying around for a while after
> > upgrade just in case they shed light on some problem that I don't
> > notice until later. So I clean them up (or not, usually) before
> > doing the next upgrade because I forget they exist.
>
> It seems to me that users ought to do this within a few days of a
> dist-upgrade while they remember the circumstances, not months or
> years later. But it's quite possible that it only seems that way to
> me because of the habits I've got into thanks to my nagging cronjobs
> (and associated system configuration backups).
Users should certainly deal with making sure their configuration files
are working immediately after an upgrade. I'm sure I'm catering to
my retentive streak in keeping them around for some time. The
good part about forgetting to deal with them is that when you come
back years later to clean up you can be pretty confident that you
don't need them any more and can delete them without having to
think. :-) Especially because by that point in the upgrade
you should already have a backup.
---
On an unrelated note (FYI): The bulk of what's between
the title of section 4.2. Checking APT configuration status
and 4.2.1 involves cleanup around ensuring that the system
is "pure Debian stable", as does a lot of the whole section.
I think the section title could be improved but a) I don't
know where to discuss this, and b) I don't have a suggestion
ready. ("Remove complicating factors" is too mysterious, yes?)
A better title might inspire breaking up what's between 4.2 and
4.2.1 into separate sections. (I'd also move the paragraph
starting "Direct upgrades from Debian releases older than 10 (buster)
are not supported." to the top.)
Apologies for being offtopic.
---
> > That makes the complete list: *.dpkg-new *.dpkg-old *.dpkg-save,
> > *.dpkg-bak, *.pam-old, *.ucf-old, *.ucf-dist, *.merge-error
>
> The ucf manpage also says that .ucf-new can occur as a symptom of an
> interrupted run (like .dpkg-new); and in theory there's .dpkg-inst, so
> maybe the search should use globs like "*.dpkg-*" and "*.ucf-*"
> instead of trying to itemise them all.
Agreed. Especially because we're not putting a command in that
just deletes them. The user has to decide what to do.
Regards,
Karl <kop@karlpinc.com>
Free Software: "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
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