On 28/08/2018 05:21, Russ Allbery wrote:
Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org> writes:I think the distinguishing factor here is whether a pathname is a configuration file or a configuration fragments directory. So, I'd say:* configuration file → /etc/foo/foo.conf → remove on purge, even if […] * configuration fragment directory → /etc/foo/foo.d/* → do not remove […]This makes sense to me, and your first case would apply if the package has a specific number of configuration files that can be shadowed in /etc.
I wonder if stateless programms aren't, in a certain sense, using `/etc` as a conf fragment directory. Take, for instance, a systemd directory like `/etc/systemd/system/`. It is no conventional ".d" directory, but it works exactly like that.
After a bit of reflection, I came to the conclusion that purging is a sort of relic of a bygone era where sysadmins configured applications by _changing_ files instead of _adding_ files.
Most of the current base programs still work in this way, but I suppose that it is only a matter of time before everything will switch to the stateless paradigm (that is in need of a better name). It is just too convenient. At that point the state "configured" would have little sense, same thing for the "apt --purge remove" command.
Regards, -- Gioele Barabucci <gioele@svario.it>