Re: Review request: debconf templates for mrtg
Eriberto wrote:
> Due #1041332, I needed to change a template. Could you check it for
> me? I will write it below.
>
> Template: mrtg/move_config_file
> Type: note
> _Description: /etc/mrtg.cfg should be moved to /etc/mrtg/mrtg.cfg
> Older versions of MRTG on Debian had the configuration file /etc/mrtg.cfg.
> This file should now be located in the directory /etc/mrtg/. The Debian
> Policy doesn't allow the installation system to change the place of the
> configuration files already present in the system (see Policy 10.7.3).
> Please, consider to make the needed adjustments in your system manually.
10.7.3 doesn't say you can't *move* a conffile; it says you can't
blindly overwrite it, discarding user changes. If mrtg moved its
existing configuration file to /etc/mrtg/mrtg.cfg like it says it's
going to, that would be okay; the problem is that dpkg makes that
tricky to implement. See Policy 5.3, and dpkg-maintscript-helper(1)
on the "dpkg-maintscript-helper mv_conffile" function:
# If a conffile is moved from one location to another, you need to
# make sure you move across any changes the user has made. This may
# seem a simple change to the preinst script at first, however that
# will result in the user being prompted by dpkg to approve the
# conffile edits even though they are not responsible of them.
(I think dh_installdeb can automate putting dpkg-maintscript-helper
snippets into maintscripts, but I'm not sure how that works.)
Just for the exercise, I'll review the text anyway.
Template: mrtg/move_config_file
Type: note
^^^^
If the new mrtg will ignore /etc/mrtg.cfg, this should probably be
"Type: warning".
_Description: /etc/mrtg.cfg should be moved to /etc/mrtg/mrtg.cfg
Older versions of MRTG on Debian had the configuration file /etc/mrtg.cfg.
This file should now be located in the directory /etc/mrtg/. The Debian
^^^
Just "Debian Policy", no "The".
Policy doesn't allow the installation system to change the place of the
This isn't true. Meanwhile, we try to avoid letting debconf talk
about debconf, and it can be confusing to mention installation in a
prompt that might be shown during a routine upgrade.
configuration files already present in the system (see Policy 10.7.3).
Please, consider to make the needed adjustments in your system manually.
This seems an unnecessarily gentle suggestion, and it doesn't need to
mention "in your system" - just say
Please make the required adjustments manually.
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
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