Comment 49 for bug 14660

On 2005-04-02 14:59:50 +0200, Marc Haber wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 02, 2005 at 01:33:57PM +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> > If this is an exceptional change (like here), then a dialog box
> > should be displayed during the dpkg-reconfigure. Other packages do
> > this.
>
> This is frequently condemned as Debconf abuse,

Does the Debian Policy Manual say that?

> > 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).
>
> So, the exim 4 packages are "broken software" from your point of view?

Not necessarily. FYI, it was bug 177846.

> > Is there a policy for config files (concerning this and also the
> > various problems above)?
>
> This is described pretty extensively in chapter 10.7 of Debian policy.

It says:

| 10.7.3 Behavior
|
| Configuration file handling must conform to the following behavior:
|
| * local changes must be preserved during a package upgrade, [...]

As my netenv script overwrites the whole configuration file, the whole
file was locally changed, and the whole file should have been preserved
during the upgrade.

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