On Wed, 06 Jan 2010, Bernhard R. Link wrote:
> Your data in in $HOME.
Not all data is in $HOME. I have lots of data which is in /srv,
/var/www, or other places, some of which is tightly coupled with a
specific set of packages.
> On other words: as a quick test: if I only use a program as user and
> purge the package and my $HOME (and perhaps /tmp by reboot), there
> should be nothing left and especially when I reinstall it everything
> should be as after the first installation.
There are lots of cases where packages legitimately fail this test.
Any change to this policy needs to account for the corner cases where
users have created or modified user data which should be preserved.
If the data was not created by the package during installation or has
been subsequently modified by the user and is likely to be of some
degree of importance, it should not be removed, even on purge, without
the specific direction of the administrator.
That said, to the extent possible, packages should remove data which
was created by the package during installation which has not been
modified by the end user or is unlikely to be of any importance.
Don Armstrong
--
EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN
Don't be teased or humiliated. See their look of surprise when you
step right up to a urinal and use it with a smile. Get Dr. Mary Evers'
EQUAL-NOW Adapter (pat. appld. for) -- purse size, fool proof,
sanitary -- comes in nine lovely, feminine, psychedelic patterns --
requires no fitting, no prescriptions.
-- Robert A Heinlein _I Will Fear No Evil_ p470.
http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
