Bug#40766: PROPOSED] Rewrite of "Configuration files" section

[Julian Gilbey <J.D.Gilbey@qmw.ac.uk>]

> On Sun, Jul 18, 1999 at 02:45:04AM +0100, Julian Gilbey wrote:
> > Do you know of any conffiles which are not configuration files?  The
> > concept of a conffile which is not a configuration file is bizarre.
> 
> /etc/init.d/* and /etc/cron.d/* are not really configuration files for
> the programs in the package. (They are configuration files for the system,
> so it's a bit confusing). They're definately conffiles, though, unless
> otherwise managed.

>From policy 3.3.5 (about /etc/init.d files):

  _Do_, however, include the `/etc/init.d' scripts in conffiles. (This
  is important since we want to give the local system administrator
  the chance to adapt the scripts to the local system--e.g., to
  disable a service without De-installing the package, or to specify
  some special command line options when starting a service--while
  making sure her changes aren't lost during the next package
  upgrade.)

So we do consider them configuration files, and they define the way in
which the package functions on the system.

So I'm still looking for a reason not to say that every conffile is
considered a configuration file.

   Julian

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  Julian Gilbey, Dept of Maths, QMW, Univ. of London. J.D.Gilbey@qmw.ac.uk
        Debian GNU/Linux Developer,  see http://www.debian.org/~jdg