Re: X config not written

[Jan Willem Stumpel <jstumpel@planet.nl>]

Ritesh Raj Sarraf wrote:
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>
> On Tuesday 01 Mar 2005 3:58 pm, Andreas Janssen wrote:
>
> > I agree that a warning could be helpful, but I also think that the 
> > maintainers can expect people to /read/ the configuration file when
> >  they want to edit it.
>
>
> Yes, Andreas is right.

Forgive me, but I do not think he is right at all.

A user running dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 as root, by this act
shows his express wish and intention to reconfigure (i.e. to make a new
conf file). This wish should not be silently ignored.

Automated processes (like upgrades) should indeed not cause arbitrary
changes in the configuration. And in general Debian upgrades are very
careful about this, always offering to keep the old config as a
default. (NOTE: the warnings in the config file itself, which 
"maintainers can expect people to read", only refer to automatic changes 
following upgrades). But a user manually calling a program should be 
able to rely on what its manpage says.

NAME
       dpkg-reconfigure - reconfigure an already installed package

Nowhere in this manpage is dexconf even mentioned.

A "warning", meaning a message "dpkg-reconfigure normally (re)configures 
packages, but not the X server; you have to run dexconf" would at most 
be a kludge. This behaviour should not occur in the first place.

Regards, Jan