On Wed 04 Jul 2018 at 09:55:54 (+0900), John Crawley wrote:
> On 2018-07-02 02:31, David Wright wrote:
> >What seems to be lost on people who feel a pressing need for
> >/etc/debian_version to contain a number to satisfy some script that
> >they have written (which seems to be the usual reason) is that
> >/etc/debian_version is a configuration file.
>
> >I don't know of and wouldn't expect the value to be
> >of any use to the system configuration tools, only to humans.
>
> Sorry, but I thought a "configuration file" was supposed to
> influence the behaviour of _software_ in some way. Are files which
> only provide info for humans also considered configuration files?
Self-evidently, unless you can determine which software is being
influenced by /etc/{debian_version,issue,issue.net}. You might
say report-bug, but all that does is copy it for perusal by
other people, hence my caveat (that you snipped in the above).
> If
> a sysadmin edited the contents of /etc/debian_version what other
> human would be expected to benefit?
Obviously anyone who runs software that the sysadmin deems to be
influenced by its contents, and which led to its being changed.
Cheers,
David.
