Bug#510667: broken conffile handling
Package: ssbd
Version: 0.10-9
Severity: serious
The handling of /etc/default/ssbd is broken.
First, it's a dpkg conffile (installed by dh_installinit) but also
modified by the maintainer scripts. This is explicitly forbidden, see
policy 10.7.3 (and the Lenny RC policy). In fact, dpkg will currently
even prompt about a modified conffile on the initial install from a
clean state.
Second, the debconf settings must not be used as a registry. If I modify
the port number in /etc/default/ssbd, an upgrade or reinstall may not
override the manual setting like it currently does. This is usually done
by parsing an existing configuration file and setting the debconf values
by that. See debconf-devel(7), 'Config file handling'.
Third, although not as serious: the config script is not supposed to
actually generate the configuration file, just examine the state of
the system and ask the questions. Again, see debconf-devel(7).
It seems to me that debconf is overkill for such a simple and
self-explanatory setting that has a sensible default. Why not just ship
a dpkg conffile and leave it at that?
--
Niko Tyni ntyni@debian.org
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