On Tue, 23 Feb 2010, Timo Juhani Lindfors wrote: > Package: base-files > Version: 5.1 > Severity: wishlist > > Short version: > > I wish that on upgrade base-files would check if > /usr/share/base-files/profile and /etc/profile differ and warn the > user if he/she might need to manually upgrade the file.
That would be contrary to the philosophy behind those files, namely, that: * They are under the control of the system admin. * They are not "canonical". It should be ok to change them. * You should not really *need* to update them, unless your goal is to have a system which is 100% identical to a newly-installed one. > The rationale here is that people expect to get the same set of bugs > regardless of whether they do a fresh installation or upgrade an old > one. I think such expectation is wrong. In fact, it's documented that such thing is not the case. Example: In base-files FAQ there is a question which says: I upgraded from woody to sarge. Should my system be FHS-compliant now? The explanation for this question makes clear that this package has some defaults that change over time and the actual directories present in the system may differe from an upgrade system to a newly installed one. I agree, however, that such paragraph in the FAQ is a very particular case which does not cover the general case of files which are installed only once and never updated again. > I understand that showing a warning during configure might sound > noisy. If that is the case please at least consider mentioning this in > README.Debian with for example something like: > > "Please note that this package installs some files only when the > package is first installed but does not upgrade them even if the > package is upgraded. These files (and their original versions) are: > > /usr/share/base-files/nsswitch.conf /etc/nsswitch.conf > /usr/share/base-files/dot.profile /root/.profile > /usr/share/base-files/dot.bashrc /root/.bashrc > /usr/share/base-files/profile /etc/profile > /usr/share/base-files/motd /etc/motd > > If your debian installation is more than a few releases old you might > want to sync these files manually from time to time." Ok, I am willing to document this issue in a better way. If possible by adding files or modifying existing ones at /usr/share/doc/base-files. There is already a file called FAQ, and I'd like not to add new files. The options I have in mind are: * Add a question to the existing FAQ. * Rename FAQ to README.Debian and add a paragraph (or a new question) there. What do you think it would be best? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
