Bug#102609: marked as done (Configuration files: "Expert" and "beginner"-modes.)
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and subject line Bug#102609: Wanted: dpkg option to consider all confflies in .deb new
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Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 22:17:36 +0200
To: submit@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Configuration files: "Expert" and "beginner"-modes.
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Package: dpkg
Version: 1.9.14
Severity: wishlist
Here are two quotes from the packaging manual, dealing with
configuration files:
> If neither the user nor the package maintainer has changed
> the file, it is left alone. If one or the other has
> changed their version, then the changed version is
> preferred - i.e., if the user edits their file, but the
> package maintainer doesn't ship a different version, the
> user's changes will stay, silently, but if the maintainer
> ships a new version and the user hasn't edited it the new
> version will be installed (with an informative
> message). If both have changed their version the user is
> prompted about the problem and must resolve the
> differences themselves.
> However, note that dpkg will not replace a conffile that
> was removed by the user (or by a script). This is
> necessary because with some programs a missing file
> produces an effect hard or impossible to achieve in
> another way, so that a missing file needs to be kept that
> way if the user did it.
(These quotes are from
/usr/share/doc/packaging-manual/packaging.html/ch-conffiles.html
as contained in the package packaging-manual, version
3.1.1.1)
I suggest, as a new feature, a distinction of "expert mode"
and "beginner's mode".
Plain dpkg continues to function as described above, which
is what I call "expert mode".
There is a command line switch added to dpkg, as well as an
option to /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg, either one of which would
switch dpkg to "beginner's mode".
In "beginner's mode", in short, we ask the users whether
they know what they have been doing to the configuration
files.
To spell this out, "beginner's mode" differs from "expert
mode" only in these two cases:
If the user has changed a configuration file, the changes
will not stay silently. Instead, the user is informed about
the situation, along these lines: "You or a script have
changed the file foobar from an older version, while the
package maintainer ships that same older version." The
process then suggests to keep the changed version, but
offers an option to go back to the package maintainer's
original.
Similarly, if a user has deleted a configuration file, the
package maintainer's file will not be dropped silently.
Instead, the user will be informed "You or a script have
deleted the configuration file foobar, which this package
would normally install." The process then suggests to not
install this file, but gives the user an option to install
it anyway.
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Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 17:17:56 -0600 (CST)
From: Adam Heath <doogie@debian.org>
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To: Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>, <102609-done@bugs.debian.org>
Subject: Re: Bug#102609: Wanted: dpkg option to consider all confflies in
.deb new
In-Reply-To: <20031031155948.GA20131@henning.makholm.net>
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On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, Henning Makholm wrote:
> It is hard to argue with a one-line "wontfix" tag, but FWIW I'll
> second the proposal in bug 102609. Perhaps it was ill received because
> of the "beginner" terminology, but I think that the proposed feature
> would sometimes be helpful even for people who know what they're
> doing.
>
> When one finds that one's attempt to hack some conffiles did not work,
> there is no really good way to get dpkg to restore them to the
> versions shipped in the .deb, unless one has been cautious enough to
> take backups of them oneself.
>
> I was in this situation recently - I tried reinstalling the original
> .deb, but dpkg just thought that since the md5sums in the "new" deb
> was identical to the ones in /var/lib/dpkg/info, it would not bother
> me with offering to install the ones in the package.
dpkg --force-confnew
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