Bug#162120: debian-policy: Deletion of configuration files--should it be preserved?

[Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>]

severity 162120 wishlist
thanks

justification: this is not a flaw in the policy, at best, this may be
a proposal to change policy to codifying, in my opinion, a less
desirable behaviour, and should be treated like any other proposal

Hi,
>>"Thomas" == Thomas Bushnell BSG <tb@becket.net> writes:


 Thomas> Section 11.7.3 says that changes to configuration files are
 Thomas> supposed to be preserved on upgrade.  This is not commonly
 Thomas> done, however, if the change consists in deleting the file
 Thomas> entirely.  Existing practice is probably fine, but the policy
 Thomas> sentence is misleading.  I suggest adding something like:

	Sorry, this is a bug in those packages. dpkg has always had
 the correct behavour of not reinstalling conffiles that are removed;
 and so do packages managing configuration files using ucf.

	Policy, while documenting practice for the most part, should
 not recommend or condone broken behavour just because packages are
 broken.

	Let us get those packages fixed.

	manoj
-- 
 Don't take life seriously, you'll never get out alive.
Manoj Srivastava   <srivasta@debian.org>  <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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