Re: [RFD]: Question regarding actions to take on --purge of a package.

[Brian May <bam@debian.org>]

>>>>> "Raul" == Raul Miller <moth@debian.org> writes:

    Raul> And what about files that "belong" to multiple packages?
    Raul> [And, how do you ensure the fresh install of a new such
    Raul> package when the old one has been running for some time?]

Well, I already experience problems when a file is owned by multiple
packages. Take dhcpd and dhdpd-beta for instance (this was a while ago
now, but I strongly suspect the problem still exists).

Say I have dhcpd-beta installed. I want to install dhcpd instead. So,
I say apt-get install dhcpd (I think it use to be called that - now
it is dhcp).

However, I still have the configuration files for dhcpd-beta
installed. How do I fix this?

dpkg --purge dhcpd-beta

of course!

WRONG! When purging dhcpd-beta, it automatically deletes
/var/lib/dhcpd, hence breaking the copy og dhcpd that was previously
installed.

Then again, I seem to remember it being policy or something saying
that only one package should claim any file unless the packages
conflict. Can anyone provide two packages that do share the same
files, and that dont conflict?

    Raul> The simple solution to letting the administrator know the
    Raul> package which created the file (which you already see in
    Raul> place here) is to ensure that the path name has the package
    Raul> name clearly embedded.

Your solution: administrator manually cleans up mess left behind by
removing package.

My solution: dpkg does it.

    Raul> Finally, what's the difference between user files and
    Raul> database files?  Location stored?  We're currently
    Raul> experiencing a controversy where creation of a man page is
    Raul> "too much".  In my opinion you're proposing a much tougher
    Raul> problem.

I am afraid you have lost me there. I wasn't proposing to put any
files in different locations - I think you were (in you last
paragraph).
-- 
Brian May <bam@debian.org>