Bug#239498: debian-policy: absolute/relative paths for files included/referenced in configuration files
Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.5.6.1
Severity: wishlist
It is explained inside the Debian Policy Manual that symlinks for files
should (or must?) be relative and not absolute. I haven't found anything
similar for configuration files and another files inclusion (or references)
There are some configuration files that include/reference to some other files
(the apache2 package, for example). A person used to write/read/modify
configuration files in debian writes relative paths in a 'natural manner',
as found in many packages.
Perhaps you could add something about this question in the policies.
My proposal is to use relative paths for files referenced/included in the
main configuration file that exist in the same directory or subdirectories under
it. If /etc/x is the directory for configuration files of the application,
and main configuration file is inside it, references to files inside /etc/x
shoud be relative to it.
Immagine the situation that package /etc/x upgrades to /etc/x2. Those
references/inclusions wouldn't need to change. I guess that this was the
reason to suggest/order symlinks to be relative and not absolute as a debian
policy. So it should be the same for references/inclusions in configuration
files...
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.0
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux verd 2.4.23-fs #3 dl des 15 01:55:35 CET 2003 i686
Locale: LANG=ca_ES@euro, LC_CTYPE=ca_ES@euro (ignored: LC_ALL set to ca_ES.UTF-8)
Versions of packages debian-policy depends on:
ii coreutils [fileutils] 5.0.91-2 The GNU core utilities
ii fileutils 4.1-10 GNU file management utilities
-- no debconf information
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