On Tue, 07 Feb 2006, Frank Küster wrote: > Don Armstrong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Just a word of caution here: If the administrator has modified the > > file, you should not rename or move it, as they may know better > > than you what they're doing. A proper course of action would be > > warning them, and/or offering to remove the files in question via > > debconf. > > If I know that the file will no longer be read at all, there's no > point in pretending that it still have an effect. Renaming it makes > this completely clear.
Right. The problem is that it's not always easy to know if the file will no longer be read at all; you can't assume that the administrator has left in place your default configuration system. [Likewise for failure modes on the presence of an obsolete configuration file; unless you know for certain that it will fail, you should give the administrator some way to override your guess.] Don Armstrong -- A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very easy to govern. It demands no social reforms. It does not haggle over expenditures on armaments and military equipment. It pays without discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent thing for the syndicates of financiers and manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors are an abundant source of gain. -- Anatole France http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
