update-modules and manually changed /etc/modules.conf

[Daniel Lutz <danlutz@debian.org>]

Hello

A user of the autofs package did send a bug report (Bug#145768)
about problems with a manually changed /etc/modules.conf file.
The problem is that update-modules fails in the postinst script.

There are two possibilities:

1. Don't catch the error and let the installation of the package
   fail.
2. Catch the error in the postinst script and inform the user
   about the error.

My favour would be the first possibility, since the Debian system
assumes that a manually changed /etc/modules.conf file is a
bad idea. The postinst script of the modutils package tells the user:

------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING: you already have an /etc/modules.conf file which has not
been generated by update-modules. Debian now uses a new system which
uses multiple files in the /etc/modutils directory. See the manpage
for update-modules for more information on this setup.

Please check all changes you made in /etc/modules.conf and either
apply them to the provided files in /etc/modutils or add your own
files there. Then run update-modules.
------------------------------------------------------------

But is this officially documented anywhere so that I can refer
this user to this documentation?


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