Re: Handling of /etc/printcap
On 17-Jan-1998 16:52:52, David Frey <david@eos.lugs.ch> wrote:
> I today just found out, that my magicfilter violates the newest policy
> by rewritting /etc/printcap, which is lpr|lprng's confile.
> What would be the correct solution for this problem? Shall I require that
> the lpr|lprng maintainer writes a modify-printcap command, so that I could
> do a 'modify-printcap --replace if=/usr/sbin/...-filter printer'
Providing a 'modify-<conffile>' script doesn't solve the problem. The
problem is that the conffile is modified without the user knowing, and
the next time they install the package that provided the conffile, they
get messages about replacing a modified conffile of which they've never
heard, don't know what it does, and don't have any idea how to answer.
(My understanding of) Current policy provides two mechanisms for package
configuration files:
1. Mark it a conffile. The file should be modified only by the user, or
by the package maintainer.
2. Build it as part of the post install, and possibly provide scripts
for other packages to modify it.
(Yes, I know lots of packages do both. They are all a real pain in
the ass every time I do upgrades.)
steve
--
Steve Greenland
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