Re: packaging question: what to do about this file...
Hello
I have a simple solution (or two actually).
1) Document that robots.txt should be copied to the proper place
in the README.Debian file.
2) Tell the user to do that in a debconf box, or even to ask for
where to install it.
I think it is a really bad idea to install it in /var/www. First
of all this default place is probably not used, more than for very very
basic installations and also because you can overwrite other things.
That is my opinion anyway. I vote for telling the user and not let the
package do anything (unless you parse apacheconfig and figure out
where all virtual hosts is placed. :) )
Regards,
// Ola
On Fri, Feb 07, 2003 at 01:45:32AM -0500, sean finney wrote:
> heya mentors,
>
> i'm packaging sugarplum, an email harvester honeypot basically. in
> order to not trap legitimate web-spiders, i thought it'd be good to
> make the install of a robots.txt[1] in /var/www happen by default if
> possible, only i'm not sure i can/ought to really do that.
>
> if i made it a conffile, it would be ok if there were already a file
> there (it would go through the whole diff/yes/no conffile handler),
> but if the package were purged the file would be removed regardless
> of whether or not the file was there originally and was used for other
> stuff (which it might be). i'd feel bad about just deleting it like
> that.
>
> i could just do nothing, but then i fear not enough people read
> /usr/share/doc and we'd have a bunch of debian users making life
> hell for the legitimate web crawlers out there.
>
> the only other thing i could think is that if there already is one,
> don't touch it, and otherwise, cat a copy that exists in /usr/share
> onto it, and when the package is purged, check if the file is
> the same as what is in the package, and if so, delete it, but otherwise
> leave it. this seems like a hack destined to leave cruft behind though.
>
> any suggestions or thoughts? they'd be much appreciated.
>
>
> sean
>
> [1] the robots.txt, for those unfamiliar with the
> never-quite-an-rfc-standard, basically can say things like "spiders,
> don't go here", which spammers frequently ignore but google won't.
--
--------------------- Ola Lundqvist ---------------------------
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