Re: Init scripts as conffiles

[The Fungi <fungi@yuggoth.org>]

On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 04:33:25PM +0000, Tony Houghton wrote:
[...]
> I would have thought it would be better to treat them as not to be
> modified by the user/admin; any init configuration should be done via
> /etc/default.

In years gone by, I've frequently had to manually adjust initscript
contents or symlink ordering to deal with issues. The vast majority
of initscripts don't source variables from under /etc/default, and
those which do often lack variables for things like
overriding/augmenting service start options or defining additional
local service interdependencies. If policy were altered to make
initscripts non-conffiles, tons of packages would be insta-buggy (at
least from a wishlist standpoint, if not worse) due to the loss of
admin flexibility.

Also, trying to change a major class of system controls which have
traditionally been considered conffiles to non-conffile status would
be a near impossibility due to the number of installed systems with
existing local modifications.
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