Comment 47 for bug 14660

On 2005-04-02 11:32:24 +0200, Marc Haber wrote:
> Our current issue is the other way round: update-exim4.conf.conf
> correctly fixed up your configuration file, preserving all local
> changes that it was able to see. And you overwrote the fixed code with
> the output of your m4 script. I don't see what the exim4 configuration
> can do here.

Probably nothing, and I don't think this would be necessary as long
as the user has been warned that a change has occurred (or may have
occurred). IMHO, an announce in the NEWS file is not sufficient, for
several reasons (e.g. it appears just like the ChangeLog displayed
with apt-listchanges). If this is an exceptional change (like here),
then a dialog box should be displayed during the dpkg-reconfigure.
Other packages do this.

> > > but having multiple versions of the file replacing each other
> > > depending on environment is pretty exotic.
> >
> > It's pretty common for those who use netenv.
>
> But done wrong.

This is often done like this (often with symbolic links, which I used
to use... until some broken software incorrectly overwrote my config
file following the symlink).

> > Comments should be clear about who can modify the files and how.
>
> Anybody can modify update-exim4.conf.conf, and changes done locally
> are respected. And you have proven that this works.

OK, so the real problem was that the change hadn't been announced.

> > and /etc/fonts/fonts.conf begins with:
> >
> > <!--
> > DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE.
> > IT WILL BE REPLACED WHEN FONTCONFIG IS UPDATED.
> > LOCAL CHANGES BELONG IN 'local.conf'.
>
> So that file doesn't belong in /etc, it should be in /var. It is the
> equivalent to our /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated

Is there a policy for config files (concerning this and also the
various problems above)?

> I have adapted our postinst to dump the following comment into
> ue4.conf.conf:
> # Please note that this is _not_ a dpkg-conffile and that automatic changes
> # to this file might happen. This is usually fine, but will break local
> # schemes that mess around with multiple versions of the file.

Thanks. This is really clear now. Also, when there is a change,
a dialog box at dpkg-reconfigure time would be nice (to warn the
user and to describe the change), since the change is done at
this time precisely.

--
Vincent Lefèvre <email address hidden> - Web: <http://www.vinc17.org/>
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Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / SPACES project at LORIA