In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Santiago Vila <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I have discovered a little inconsistency in the policy.
> Section 5.5, "Mail transport agents" says: > "/etc/aliases is the source file for the system mail aliases > (e.g., postmaster, usenet, etc.)--it is the one which the sysadmin > and postinst scripts may edit." > According to this, a postinst script *may* edit /etc/aliases. > However, section 4.7, "Configuration files" says: > "A package may not modify a configuration file of another > package." > According to this, editing /etc/aliases is not allowed, since this > file is a conffile for sendmail, at least, and certainly it is a > "configuration file" in either case. > So, which is the truth, may /etc/aliases be edited by a postinst, or > it may not? Your underlying assumption is that /etc/aliases is marked as a config file by the MTA packages. In fact, it is not. The word 'configuration files', refers to the technical meaning, 'marked as a config file for some package'. (NO PLEASE DON'T DRAG THIS INTO SEMANTICS!) However, /etc/aliases is not the config file of any package. Therefore, it's perfectly fine to mess with it from maintainer scripts. > If "do not modify a configuration file of another package" is just a > general rule, it should be clear how many exceptions to the rule are > there. There are no exceptions. -- .....Adam Di [EMAIL PROTECTED]<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>