You are mostly correct (not a surprise!) - the systemd service file has *not* been changed, so, on a systemctl restart or reboot, the original, unchanged, weewx.conf is indeed being used. However, when apt restarted weewx after the upgrade, it did report (at least) that the new weewx.conf-5.0.0b16-5.4.0 file was being used - hence my confusion and original question.
On Monday, June 22, 2026 at 12:22:36 AM UTC-4 matthew wall wrote: > > > > On Jun 21, 2026, at 14:46, 'Peter Fletcher' via weewx-user < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > However, when weewx was restarted by apt, I noticed that it was using a > differently named .conf file (weewx.conf-5.0.0b16-5.4.0). > > that would require a change to the systemd unit file, telling weewxd to > use weewx.conf-5.0.0b16-5.4.0 instead of weewx.conf. i am pretty sure that > your system is still using weewx.conf. if not, please provide more > information. > > > > weewx started up normally, and the 'new' .conf file turns out to be a > copy of my original, with a change in the version parameter from 5.0.0b16 > to 5.4.0 and a couple of minor changes in some commented text. > > if you choose to use the maintainer's version, or if you mess with the > 'version' field, then the apt logic will copy the maintainer's version into > weewx.conf. > > > > In one sense, it can be argued that the upgrade did keep my old version > of weewx.conf - just under a new name! However, the potential problem with > this behavior, if I had not noticed the change, is that I might make a > modification to the original weewx.conf in the future and get very confused > by its not working! > > if you modify weewx.conf, then there should be no confusion. weewx.conf is > what your system uses unless you change the systemd configuration. > > > > I think that this represents a change in behavior, but it may not be a > recent one, since weewx wasn't apt installed on my bookworm system, and I > think that this is the first time it has been upgraded by apt on my Trixie > system. Why is "keep my existing weewx.conf" no longer being taken > literally? > > it is quite possible that the b16 is messing things up, resulting in you > getting a maintainer's version (which could look just like your original > conf, but with mangled/reformatted comments). > > we have had issues with the operating systems' comparisons of versions. i > don't remember if this is true for dpkg, but there were cases where > 5.1.0b10 was treated as newer than 5.1.0, for example. > > apologies for the previous, lengthy response that did not address your > questions directly. > > m > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "weewx-user" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/ca6e2d89-677f-43c1-aafb-2c88e35a15c0n%40googlegroups.com.
