Package: debian-policy Version: 2.3.0.1 Severity: wishlist Note: I'm Cc:ing to debian-policy to finish (let's hope) the discussion.
Hi folks, if you have something more to add, please post it to the [EMAIL PROTECTED] address. Thanks. Policy Manual 3.4.5 says: Do not include the /etc/rcn.d/* symbolic links in dpkg's conffiles list! This will cause problems! Do, however, include the /etc/init.d scripts in conffiles. A rationale for the last sentence could be added. After asking in debian-policy, it seems that there are several reasons for this: * The services may be deactivated very easily without having to uninstall the package. * The behaviour of these scrips may be modified very easily without having to create a modified version of the package containing it. * We save our users the need to check whether a certain /etc/init.d script is a conffile or not. And the reason I think is the "real" one: For scripts in /usr/bin, the user may create modified versions and put them in /usr/local/bin. Since we want to give our users the same freedom to modify these scripts than the freedom they already have to modify ordinary scripts (using /usr/local/bin) and since there seem to be no equivalent of /usr/local/bin for /etc/init.d scripts, we have to make them all conffiles by policy. Please add this rationale to the policy if you see it fits. Thanks.
