Bug#255269: tetex-extra: conffile handling confuses dpkg
retitle 255269 tetex-extra: handling of conffile "omega.map" confuses dpkg
Yann Dirson <dirson@debian.org> wrote:
> Package: tetex-extra
> Version: 2.0.2-9
> Severity: normal
>
> At configure time I see the following. Looks like a usual behaviour we get
> when a conffile gets moved and dpkg cannot know about the move, but here it
> seems to show that dpkg believes I had manually removed omega.map and writes
> a possibly-confusing warning.
> [...]
>
> Configuration file `/etc/texmf/dvips/omega.map'
> ==> Modified (by you or by a script) since installation.
> ==> Package distributor has shipped an updated version.
> [...]
> *** omega.map (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ? i
> dpkg: tetex-extra: warning - failed to link /etc/texmf/dvips/omega.map' to /etc/texmf/dvips/omega.map.dpkg-old': No such file or directory
> Installing new version of config file /etc/texmf/dvips/omega.map ...
>
It was a buggy maintainer script that previously removed the map
file. In order to resurrect it, we added a comment to it, so that dpkg
will reinstall it. There's no way to resurrect it before dpkg acts on it
(except by some debconf question and preinst action, but that would be
overkill and trigger "debconf missuse" comlaints).
The real bug is that dpkg does not say "This conffile is missing on your
system", but just displays the standard "changed by you or a script"
message, and tries to save away the non-existing file.
Summary: There's nothing we can do about it; I think dpkg has yet bug
reports regarding this behavior.
This bug only applies to users that have been keeping track of testing
or unstable, and is only triggered in one upgrade. I think we should
keep the bug open until sarge is released - by then, versions between
woody and sarge should have mostly disappeared. And I'm retitling it, so
that people looking for problems with omega.map will find it.
Regards, Frank
--
Frank Küster, Biozentrum der Univ. Basel
Abt. Biophysikalische Chemie
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