Bug#40766: Rewrite of "configuration files" section

[Steve Greenland <stevegr@debian.org>]

On 11-Jul-99, 19:58 (CDT), Hamish Moffatt <hamish@debian.org> wrote: 
> 
> 4.7.4. Sharing configuration files
> ----------------------------------
> 
>      Only packages that are tagged _conflicting_ with each other may
>      specify the same file as `conffile'.
> 
>      A package may not modify a conffile of another package.
> 
> 
> 
> Perhaps this last line should be changed to indicate that:
> 
> * the maintainer scripts should not alter the conffile of ANY package,
>   including the one the scripts belong to.

Covered by the second paragraph of 4.7.3, but no problem with
re-emphasizing here.

> * the program itself in the package may modify the conffiles of other
>   packages (eg if the program is an editor or dotfiles-type package).
>   It may be better to leave this point out to avoid confusion.

I had to read that three times to understand what you were getting
at, so I think the confusion potential is pretty high. I think adding
a paragraph that discusses the rationale and intent might be good,
stressing that the point is that conffiles not be modified except
by deliberate, obvious request of the sysadmin. It's ok to have a
special/specialized editor to modify a conffile, but it should never be
run by anything except a human, and it should be obvious to that human
that the conffile is being modified.

Steve