Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 02:48:06 -0400 (EDT) From: "Adam C. Migus" <adam@migus.org> To: "Kris Kennaway" <kris@obsecurity.org> Cc: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: config files in packages (Re: (proposal) new flag forpkg_delete) Message-ID: <49222.192.168.4.2.1062744486.squirrel@mail.migus.org> In-Reply-To: <20030903200658.GD51382@rot13.obsecurity.org> References: <20030903143948.GA61515@gattaca.yadt.co.uk><20030903144734.GZ47671@procyon.firepipe.net><20030903182925.GA79913@gattaca.yadt.co.uk> <20030903191427.GE541@xtanbul> <20030903200658.GD51382@rot13.obsecurity.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Kris Kennaway said: > On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 03:14:28PM -0400, The Anarcat wrote: > >> Debian adopted what I think is an elegant solution to this >> problem. The configuration files are marked as such in the >> package. When deinstalling, you must explicitely ask it if you >> want >> the configuration files to be removed. > > Most well-written packages install a sample config file, copy it to > the real config file if one does not exist (and it is appropriate to > do so), then only remove the real config file at deinstall time iff > it > does not differ from the sample config file. See any number of port > plists for the implementation of this. > > Kris This approach works great assuming every port is well written, but every port isn't well written. Considering absence of this behavior a bug is fine if you want a million PR's, a lot of discouraged port maintainers and, if/when they do get fixed, a lot of newbies wondering why their FreeBSD boxes have a million -dist files but they're Linux boxes don't yet packages always seem to install and uninstall cleanly. Also, FWIW Digital UNIX used to keep a copy of default configuration files around as .proto..<filename> IIRC for reference and many administrators removed them siting quite a few different reasons for doing so. Once a -dist file is removed, the pkg_delete and subsequent package creates (if you use portupgrade -Rap for example) will fail due to a missing package file. I agree with the something like the Debian approach but perhaps with more emphasis on comparison and automation than user interaction. It takes the worry out of the hands of the port maintainers, it keeps users from screwing up their installations, it's been done and shown to work it can be improved by offering a diff feature. -- Adam - (http://people.migus.org/~amigus/) Migus Dot Org - (http://www.migus.org/)
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?49222.192.168.4.2.1062744486.squirrel>