Package: postfix
Version: 3.3.0-1ubuntu0.1
Severity: minor
As you can tell from the version, I'm actually encountering this problem
on Ubuntu, but this is merely a packaging matter so filing this upstream
seemed valid!
When upgrading Postfix, I was surprised to be asked
Configuration file '/etc/postfix/makedefs.out'
==> Modified (by you or by a script) since installation.
==> Package distributor has shipped an updated version.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** makedefs.out (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
This would appear to have been added with version 3.1.4-1, specifically:
* Install /etc/postfix/makedefs.out so users can see how the package was
built
which is a laudable and understandable goal. However, it seems quite
unequivocal that the package-provided version of this file should always be
used when installing the package, since the file itself opens with the
following line:
# Do not edit -- this file documents how Postfix was built for your machine.
There does not seem to be a valid reason for a user to have a version of that
file that differs at all from the package-provided version, then; any
divergence, in fact, would be misleading.
Presumably then this file should be included in a way that does not require
user intervention to update the makedefs.out file (ex. the /etc/ copy could
just be a symlink to a copy in /usr/share/postfix/, or perhaps there's some
packaging magic that could be done?).
(I suppose I should probably have filed this bug upstream with Debian, but I
don't actually have any Debian systems running Postfix at the moment, only
Ubuntu Server ones.)
