Re: config files and packages
On Fri, Sep 20, 2002 at 10:33:56AM -0700, Jeff Cours wrote:
> Apologies in advance for a very much newbie question. I'm trying to
> make the transition from Mandrake to Debian (stable right now, with
> plans to track testing once I get stable working). There are a bunch
> of things that Mandrake auto-configured that I'm going to have to
> configure manually with Debian. I figure I can take care of most of
> them by comparing configurations between the two distros and porting
> over the stuff I need.
>
> My question is a little more basic, though. I still don't completely
> understand Debian package management, especially the way it handles
> config files during upgrades. Can I just edit files under /etc as
> necessary? What happens to them when I upgrade - are the upgrade
> scripts smart about keeping my changes, or do I need to tell the
> package manager about them explicitly? If it's as simple as the
> package manager not touching anything under /etc that I've modified,
> what happens down the line when an application changes its config file
> format?
>
Simply put. Yes you can. And yes apt is smart enough. Though there are several files in /etc that the scripts of the packages do change. There will either be big warnings on
these conf files, or debconf will ask you if you want to update them or leave your's in place.
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