On Tue, 31 May 2011 10:10:01 +0200, Neil Bothwick wrote about Re: [gentoo-user] Cleaning redundant configuration files:
>On Mon, 30 May 2011 23:08:08 +0100, David W Noon wrote: > >> You have just touched on an annoyance of unmerge, in that it does not >> clean up configuration files that have been modified. It removes >> files that are still in the same state as when the package was >> emerged, but not those modified by the user. I don't see how user >> changes make the file more important than would be in its vanilla >> state. > >It doesn't remove *any* files that have been modified, Erm ... that's what I wrote, above. [That is, of course, predicated on the assumption that installing Package A will not modify configuration files owned by Package B, and vice-versa: all post-installation modifications are performed by the user.] >the reasons >systems used to get cluttered with orphaned .la files. The logic is >quite simple, if it is not the file portage installed with the >package, it should not be uninstalled with the package. Why should that be so? If the user has modified a configuration file after the previous installation and then unmerges the package, a repeat of the configuration changes is all that is required to reinstate it if the package is removed in its entirety. The user might even be daring and take a backup of the file(s) in question. To repeat myself: I do not see a customized configuration file as being any more important than a vanilla one. If I understand a configuration file well enough to customize it once, I remain capable of customizing it again after a reinstall. I should be clear here: a reinstall means "from new, with no previous version currently installed" and is quite distinct from an upgrade or rebuild. >There are >times when some sort of --force-remove option to remove both these and >files in CONFIG_PROTECTed directories would be useful. Again, what I wrote. I think we largely agree on this issue. -- Regards, Dave [RLU #314465] *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* dwn...@ntlworld.com (David W Noon) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
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