Bug#23712: conflicting packages with the same conffile
On Fri, 20 Aug 2010, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Objections or seconds?
Looks mostly good except:
> @@ -8014,6 +7998,34 @@ ln -fs ../sbin/sendmail debian/tmp/usr/bin/runq
> and which manages the shared configuration files. (The
> <tt>sgml-base</tt> package is a good example.)
> </p>
> +
> + <p>
> + If the configuration file cannot be shared as described above,
> + the packages must be marked as conflicting with each other.
> + Two packages that specify the same file as
> + a <tt>conffile</tt> must conflict. This is an instance of the
> + general rule about not sharing files. Neither alternatives
> + nor diversions are likely to be appropriate in this case; in
> + particular, <prgn>dpkg</prgn> does not handle diverted
> + <tt>conffile</tt>s well.
> + </p>
> +
> + <p>
> + A package that declares the same <tt>conffile</tt> as another,
> + conflicting package may see left-over configuration files from
> + that other package.
EPARSE on this sentence, it looks like some words are missing.
> If a user removes (without purging) one
> + of the packages and installs the other, the new package will
> + take over the <tt>conffile</tt> from the old package. If the
> + file was modified by the user, it will be treated the same as
> + any other locally modified <tt>conffile</tt> during an
> + upgrade.
> + </p>
> +
> + <p>
> + The maintainer scripts must not alter a <tt>conffile</tt>
> + of <em>any</em> package, including the one the scripts
> + belong to.
> + </p>
Cheers,
--
Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer ◈ [Flattr=20693]
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