Removing obsolete configuration files on upgrade

2013-11-30 Thread Jonathan Nieder 
Hi policy experts,

Since policy 3.8.5.0, section 10.7.3 says

Obsolete configuration files without local changes should be
removed by the package during upgrade.

I was trying to apply this to the git package and ran into a little
trouble.  Consider the following sequence of events:

 1. I install package hello-demo version 1, including a conffile
/etc/greeting with content 'hello'.

 2. I change /etc/greeting to 'hi'.

 3. I upgrade hello-demo to version 2, which dropped the customizable
greeting functionality.  /etc/greeting is obsolete now.  Since
my greeting was customized, it is retained in /etc/greeting.

 4. I change /etc/greeting back to 'hello'.

 5. I upgrade hello-demo to version 3, which still does not support
customizable greetings.

Should /etc/greeting be removed during the upgrade?  After all, it
is both (a) obsolete and (b) without local changes from the version 1
of the conffile.

My hunch is to say that a package may remove /etc/greeting in this
case but by no means should.  That is, something like the following
but hopefully less awkward:

Obsolete configuration files without local changes may be
removed by the package during upgrade, and should be removed
by the package during upgrade from the version before they
were obsolete.

What do you think?

Thanks,
Jonathan


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Re: Removing obsolete configuration files on upgrade

2013-11-30 Thread Bill Allombert 
On Sat, Nov 30, 2013 at 12:03:53PM -0800, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Hi policy experts,
> 
> Since policy 3.8.5.0, section 10.7.3 says
> 
>   Obsolete configuration files without local changes should be
>   removed by the package during upgrade.
> 
> I was trying to apply this to the git package and ran into a little
> trouble.  Consider the following sequence of events:
> 
>  1. I install package hello-demo version 1, including a conffile
> /etc/greeting with content 'hello'.
> 
>  2. I change /etc/greeting to 'hi'.
> 
>  3. I upgrade hello-demo to version 2, which dropped the customizable
> greeting functionality.  /etc/greeting is obsolete now.  Since
> my greeting was customized, it is retained in /etc/greeting.
> 
>  4. I change /etc/greeting back to 'hello'.
> 
>  5. I upgrade hello-demo to version 3, which still does not support
> customizable greetings.
> 
> Should /etc/greeting be removed during the upgrade?  After all, it
> is both (a) obsolete and (b) without local changes from the version 1
> of the conffile.
> 
> My hunch is to say that a package may remove /etc/greeting in this
> case but by no means should.  That is, something like the following
> but hopefully less awkward:
> 
>   Obsolete configuration files without local changes may be
>   removed by the package during upgrade, and should be removed
>   by the package during upgrade from the version before they
>   were obsolete.
> 
> What do you think?

I htink policy is mostly concerned by upgrade between stable release, and
hence only one upgrade is considered.

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. 

Imagine a large red swirl here. 


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Re: Removing obsolete configuration files on upgrade

2013-11-30 Thread Julian Gilbey 
On Sat, Nov 30, 2013 at 12:03:53PM -0800, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> My hunch is to say that a package may remove /etc/greeting in this
> case but by no means should.  That is, something like the following
> but hopefully less awkward:
> 
>   Obsolete configuration files without local changes may be
>   removed by the package during upgrade, and should be removed
>   by the package during upgrade from the version before they
>   were obsolete.
> 
> What do you think?

What does "upgrade from the version before they were obsolete" mean?
Does this mean the stable version before they were obsolete?  Or any
version before they were obsolete?  Perhaps "during upgrade from a
version before they were obsolete" would be better?

More significantly, how does this suggestion help in your case?  It
doesn't seem to mention it; it only mentions the regular case.

   Julian


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Re: Removing obsolete configuration files on upgrade

2013-11-30 Thread Kurt Roeckx 
On Sat, Nov 30, 2013 at 12:03:53PM -0800, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Hi policy experts,
> 
> Since policy 3.8.5.0, section 10.7.3 says
> 
>   Obsolete configuration files without local changes should be
>   removed by the package during upgrade.
> 
> I was trying to apply this to the git package and ran into a little
> trouble.  Consider the following sequence of events:
> 
>  1. I install package hello-demo version 1, including a conffile
> /etc/greeting with content 'hello'.
> 
>  2. I change /etc/greeting to 'hi'.
> 
>  3. I upgrade hello-demo to version 2, which dropped the customizable
> greeting functionality.  /etc/greeting is obsolete now.  Since
> my greeting was customized, it is retained in /etc/greeting.
> 
>  4. I change /etc/greeting back to 'hello'.
> 
>  5. I upgrade hello-demo to version 3, which still does not support
> customizable greetings.
> 
> Should /etc/greeting be removed during the upgrade?  After all, it
> is both (a) obsolete and (b) without local changes from the version 1
> of the conffile.

I would say an it should only check this the first time it's
upgraded from a version that did have the conffile to a version
that doesn't, but may optionally check this on any upgrade.

Is dpkg-maintscript-helper doing something you didn't expect?


Kurt


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Re: Removing obsolete configuration files on upgrade

2013-11-30 Thread Russ Allbery 
Kurt Roeckx  writes:

> I would say an it should only check this the first time it's upgraded
> from a version that did have the conffile to a version that doesn't, but
> may optionally check this on any upgrade.

That sounds right to me too.

-- 
Russ Allbery (r...@debian.org)   


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