On Sat, Jan 11, 2003 at 11:57:54PM +0100, Luca Olivetti wrote:
> Ben Reser wrote:
>
> >In this situation either way you go you'll run into issues. If you
> >replace config files, you'll have unhappy people complaining that their
> >configs were ovewritten and that they would have worken just fine. If
> >you don't then you'll have people with issues because of their configs.
> >What has been done is the best intermediate situation that can. Configs
> >get upgraded so long as the config file that was installed by the
> >current RPM has not been changed.
>
> No, the best intermediate situation is to diff the current config to the
> default config and then patch the result into the new config. If it
> isn't possible warn the user. If it is too dangerous, make it
> configurable, but anyway after the upgrade advise the user which config
> files have to be checked (always reminding him the changes he made to
> the original config file).
> The problem doesn't end with config files, though, there are also
> changes in data files (e.g. db3, db4...) and user config files.
The data files can be upgraded (but not downgraded) by calling a
function of the db library.
> Anyway, how does debian handle this mess? (I'm asking because debian
> users usually brag about how they only need to install once)
>
There are several things that are done in Debian. I think it looks like
this:
- config files are genereated from questions for which answers are
stored somewhere. It allows customization for most cases w/o editing
the files manually -> the files can be regenerated on upgrade from the
old answers (+ additional new answers if needed)
- manually edited files are probably left in place
- some files have two sections: automatic that is updated by
install/remove scripts of several packages and user which is edited by
user
Especially updating the configuration on installation/upgrade is nice
and made me quite happy compared to etc-update that is not even included
on the CDs I have (or at least well hidden)
I am not sure how well it works together. I installed only a minimal
'unstable' system and had no problems with upgrades until it crashed,
corrupted my filesystem, and forced me into reinstall which I did not
finish yet. As it is not Linux based but Hurd based the crash is not
that strange.
--
Michal Suchanek
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
