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Ben Armstrong wrote: | On Thu, Apr 08, 2004 at 11:17:45PM +0200, Jonas Smedegaard wrote: | |>I do not have the answer, but want to raise a red flag here: Do *not* |>use symlinks below /etc! Symlinked conffiles are not handled properly in |>Debian. | | | That's a new one on me. Please show me in debian-policy where it says you | should not use symlinked conffiles. Or if it is a legitimate problem that | must be avoided by developers and yet is not in policy, it ought to be, so | please file a bug on the debian-policy package and make your case for the | change in it.
Ok, let me rephrase: Overriding a conffile with a symlink is not handled properly in Debian.
this is not a problem for developers, but for users. Please read on...
Debian Policy is for package maintainers, not for local systems administrators. I warned earlier that Skolelinux packages breaks policy by making changes to conffiles of other packages, but was then told that Skolelinux packages does not do that - they just provide scripts for the local admin to do the changes automatically (and runs those scripts through debconf). I honestly did not buy that argument, but didn't want to waste more time on the issue - I made my point, and it wasn't accepted.
So, the packages are not in violation with Debian Policy because the tampering of other packages is (in a smart way) left to the local admin. I therefore do *not* complain about a breach of policy, but about an unwise thing for (developers to persuade) local admins to do.
Try this:
~ 1) Install dhcp3-server ~ 2) Replace manually /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf with a symlink ~ 3) Update dhcp3-server to a newer version (with changes to the conffile, so that the "do you want to update this file" dialogue appears.
As far as I remember (as a local admin I stopped using symlinks some time ago), the update proces now no longer warns about upgrades, but just silently ignores them. This is bad, because the whole point of the warning is that if the conffile is updated it is quite possible those changes are needed, even if changed locally.
~ - Jonas
- -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist og Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/
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