Postfix upgrade queries about replacing /etc/postfix/makedefs.out, when it really should always do so

[Keith Z-G]

When upgrading Postfix, I was surprised to be asked

Configuration file '/etc/postfix/makedefs.out'
 ==> Modified (by you or by a script) since installation.
 ==> Package distributor has shipped an updated version.
   What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
    Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
    N or O : keep your currently-installed version
      D : show the differences between the versions
      Z : start a shell to examine the situation
 The default action is to keep your current version.
*** makedefs.out (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?

This would appear to have been added with version 3.1.4-1, specifically:

  * Install /etc/postfix/makedefs.out so users can see how the package was built

which is a laudable and understandable goal. However, it seems quite unequivocal that the package-provided version of this file should always be used when installing the package, since the file itself opens with the following line:

  # Do not edit -- this file documents how Postfix was built for your machine.

There does not seem to be a valid reason for a user to have a version of that file that differs at all from the package-provided version, then; any divergence, in fact, would be misleading.

Presumably then this file should be included in a way that does not require user intervention to update the makedefs.out file (ex. the /etc/ copy could just be a symlink to a copy in /usr/share/postfix/, or perhaps there's some packaging magic that could be done?).

Ran into this on a server running Ubuntu 18.04, when running upgrades which pulled down Postfix version 3.3.0-1ubuntu0.1.

[Keith Z-G (keithzg)]

Note that I attempted to file a bug upstream with Debian too (since that's where this packaging choice originated), but I think I might have mucked up the reporting format as I see no indication my bug ever reached upstream.

[Keith Z-G (keithzg)]

I stand corrected: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=908545

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Neal McBurnett (nealmcb)]

Yes - very puzzling.

In my case it said

    Configuration file '/etc/postfix/makedefs.out'
    ==> Deleted (by you or by a script) since installation

I certainly don't recall deleting it.

I'm running Bionic.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Being in /etc made it a conffile by default which is what will give it all the handling about updated files that you were facing.
I agree that in general this would be a file one expected to be around in an informal way, but not be bothered with these questions.

IMHO this should be moved to e.g. /usr/share/postfix/makedefs.out
And yes there could be a symlink from the former /etc path, but I think that isn't strictly required.

Just like this maybe:
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index cfbe1683..fd2c3b45 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+postfix (3.2.4-2) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+ * make makedefs.out no more be a conffile Closes: #908545
+
+ -- Christian Ehrhardt <email address hidden> Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:23:22 +0200
+
 postfix (3.2.4-1) unstable; urgency=medium

   [Wietse Venema]
diff --git a/debian/postfix.maintscript b/debian/postfix.maintscript
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7a81ec99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/postfix.maintscript
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# moved to sharedir to not bother users with conffile prompts
+rm_conffile /etc/postfix/makedefs.out 3.2.4-2~ postfix
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 59ca3d7d..a6a3bb20 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ install-arch: build-arch
        ln -s ../sbin/sendmail $(bindir)/mailq
        ln -s ../sbin/sendmail ${base}/usr/lib/sendmail
        install -m 0755 conf/postfix-script conf/post-install $(confdir)
- install -m 0644 conf/makedefs.out $(confdir)
+ install -m 0644 conf/makedefs.out $(sharedir)
        install -m 0644 debian/functions $(sharedir)/postinst.functions
        install -m 0644 conf/master.cf $(sharedir)/master.cf.dist
        install -m 0644 conf/main.cf.dist $(sharedir)/main.cf.dist

I'll suggest that to the Debian bug.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Testing on what I proposed to Debian seems to work fine:

root@c:~# dpkg --status postfix | grep makedefs.out; ls -laF /etc/postfix/makedefs.out /usr/share/postfix/makedefs.out
 /etc/postfix/makedefs.out 109692331793570f2d0884efe222949b
ls: cannot access '/usr/share/postfix/makedefs.out': No such file or directory
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4480 May 9 12:51 /etc/postfix/makedefs.out
root@c:~# apt install postfix
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  procmail postfix-mysql postfix-pgsql postfix-ldap postfix-pcre postfix-lmdb postfix-sqlite sasl2-bin dovecot-common resolvconf postfix-cdb mail-reader postfix-doc
The following packages will be upgraded:
  postfix
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 47 not upgraded.
Need to get 1149 kB of archives.
After this operation, 239 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ci-train-ppa-service/3415/ubuntu cosmic/main amd64 postfix amd64 3.3.0-1ubuntu2~test1 [1149 kB]
Fetched 1149 kB in 1s (845 kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 53910 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../postfix_3.3.0-1ubuntu2~test1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking postfix (3.3.0-1ubuntu2~test1) over (3.3.0-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for ufw (0.35-6) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (239-7ubuntu7) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.4-2) ...
Processing triggers for rsyslog (8.32.0-1ubuntu5) ...
Setting up postfix (3.3.0-1ubuntu2~test1) ...
Removing obsolete conffile /etc/postfix/makedefs.out ...

Postfix (main.cf) configuration was not changed. If you need to make changes,
edit /etc/postfix/main.cf (and others) as needed. To view Postfix
configuration values, see postconf(1).

After modifying main.cf, be sure to run 'service postfix reload'.

Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.28-0ubuntu1) ...
root@c:~# dpkg --status postfix | grep makedefs.out; ls -laF /etc/postfix/makedefs.out /usr/share/postfix/makedefs.out
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 31 Sep 14 06:58 /etc/postfix/makedefs.out -> /usr/share/postfix/makedefs.out
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4480 Sep 13 12:23 /usr/share/postfix/makedefs.out

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

This isn't sometihng we'd want to take a Delta in Ubuntu for IMHO, so I'm waiting if my Debian submission will be accepted.

[Scott Kitterman (kitterman)]

On Monday, September 17, 2018 06:10:30 AM you wrote:
> This isn't sometihng we'd want to take a Delta in Ubuntu for IMHO, so
> I'm waiting if my Debian submission will be accepted.

I expect I'll apply the change, but am severely lacking in time right now.

It would help if you could submit a merge request on salsa.d.o [1].

Thanks,

Scott K

[1] https://salsa.debian.org/postfix-team/postfix-dev

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Thanks Scott, whenever you get to it will be fine.
MR done at https://salsa.debian.org/postfix-team/postfix-dev/merge_requests/1

[Scott Kitterman (kitterman)]

No idea why the remote bug status isn't updating, but this is fixed in Debian.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Thanks Scott for the info!
(I don't know why it didn't pick up the bug status change either)

Fixed in 3.3.2-2
Disco is on 3.3.2-4 and thereby fixed

IMHO this isn't important enough to SRU it, so the bug should be done for Ubuntu as well.