Hi,
This bug has not been looked at for a while. The wiki article:
states:
,----[ http://wiki.debian.org/DpkgConffileHandling ]
| If you completely remove a configuration file, you should make sure
| it's also removed from the disk. However if the user has modified it,
| then you have to preserve the user's modifications somehow in case
| they wish to refer to them (see also Policy 10.7.3).
|
| This can be done your preinst script when given the install or upgrade
| argument with a package version known to have the conffile that has
| been removed.
`----
I do think this makes sense, and is definitely a good practice
(and thus belongs in the developers reference, at least, if not in
policy proper.
The argument I see for having it in policy proper is that a
conffile left behind which is no longer used has potential for
confusion, not only for humans, but other packages that may parse the
configuration.
I also think we should consider what happens if the package is
subsequently purged; in that case, all the conffiles it uses are
purged -- but the conffile it no longer uses is left behind as cruft in
the system, which seems like a flaw.
manoj
--
There's no such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with
it.
Manoj Srivastava <sriva...@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
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