Re: conffiles versus configuration files

[Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@datasync.com>]

Hi,
>>"Kai" == Kai Henningsen <kaih@khms.westfalen.de> writes:

Kai> Weell, a short grep/sort in /var/dpkg/info shows these candidates
Kai> - note I make no comment on their desirability either way:

Kai> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/XCal.help
Kai> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/XEarth

4.7. Programs for the X Windows system
     *Application defaults* files have to be installed in the directory
     `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/'. They are considered as part of the
     program code. Thus, they should not be modified and should not be
     tagged as *conffile*. If the local system administrator wants to
     customise X applications globally, the file `/etc/X11/Xresources'
     should be used.

	I Shall report bugs, if I were you.

Kai> /usr/sbin/faxrunqd

	This is really bad programming style, if it expects one to
 edit a script for configuration. This is quite user unfriendly, and,
 moreevr, it means that changes can't be saved merely by backing up
 /etc. We could, at the very least, do

 if (-f '/etc/faxrunqd.conf') {do '/etc/faxrunqd.conf';};

	If you want to get fancy, you could try this::
 ______________________________________________________________________
  open(CONFIG, "$Config_file") || die "Could not open $Config_file:$!";
  my $lineno = 0;
  while (<CONFIG>) {
      chomp;
      $lineno++;
      s/\#.*//og;
      next if /^\s*$/og;
      $_ .= ";" unless /;\s*$/;
      if (/^\s*([^=]+)\s*=\s*(\S.*)$/o) {
          my $ret = eval {"$1=$2"};

          if ($@) {
              print STDERR "Error parsing config file!\n";
              print STDERR "$lineno:$_\n";
          }
      }
  }
 ______________________________________________________________________


Kai> /usr/lib/spamdb/constants
Kai> /usr/lib/spamdb/procmail.recipe

	These should be put in /etc, and maybe a symlink back to where
 the code needs to see them.

Kai> /var/lib/games/nethack/logfile
Kai> /var/lib/games/nethack/record

	Are these score files? Did we not agree that score files
 should not be conffiles, but be managed out of the maintainer
 scripts? 

Kai> /var/lib/gnats/gnats-db/gnats-adm/categories
Kai> /var/lib/gnats/gnats-db/gnats-adm/config
Kai> /var/lib/gnats/gnats-db/gnats-adm/gnatsd.conf
Kai> /var/lib/gnats/gnats-db/gnats-adm/responsible
Kai> /var/lib/gnats/gnats-db/gnats-adm/submitters

	Why are all these not in /etc? Seems to me that these are
 configuration files. I think this is a bug.

Kai> /var/lib/mime/mime-db

	I have no idea what this is.

Kai> /var/list/.bin/mimencap.local
Kai> /var/list/.etc/archive.txt 
Kai> /var/list/.etc/help.txt
Kai> /var/list/.etc/rc.archive 
Kai> /var/list/.etc/rc.custom
Kai> /var/list/.etc/rc.main 
Kai> /var/list/.etc/rc.post
Kai> /var/list/.etc/rc.request 
Kai> /var/list/.etc/rc.submit
Kai> /var/list/.etc/subscribe.txt 
Kai> /var/list/.etc/unsubscribe.txt

	What on earth are these files? If they are user configurable,
 how come they are in hidden directories? Why are they not in a subdir
 of /etc, with a symlink as needed? This seems like a bug to me.

Kai> /var/news/WELCOME

	This should be a symlink back into /etc, I should think (I am
 not sure abot this one). Why is this a conffile? Why can it not be
 symlinked back into /etc?

	manoj

-- 
 It is not well to be thought of as one who meekly submits to
 insolence and intimidation.
Manoj Srivastava  <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05  CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E


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