Package: uptimed
Version: 1:0.3.16-3.1
Severity: grave
Justification: causes data loss

I upgraded to uptimed 1:0.3.16-3.1 on my second laptop (see bug #573232).
I did so via SSH and forgot the SSH connection while login out and in to
my KDE 4.4.1 desktop on my first notebook. I had a dpkg and a debconf
process hanging around without accessible terminal, so I send them a
SIGTERM.

Then I did a dpkg --configure -a followed from a dpkg-reconfigure uptimed
in order to adjust the maxrecords setting from 25 to 0 (unlimited). Cause
I didn't see the uptimed update since I didn't watch the last output of
the SSH connection. Thus I thought it might come with some due to the
interruption possibly not updated packages and wanted to play it safe
regarding bug #573232.

dpkg-reconfigure told me the package was not installed completely. Thus I
did a aptitude reinstall uptimed.

And then it silently overwrote the config file /etc/uptimed.conf with
maxrecords set to 25 and uptimed truncated the records database on this
laptop as well. Fortunately I made a backup before.

I know that this is not the "proper" way to update a package, but even
when I dpkg --remove'd  it and installed it again, it should not
overwrite a pre-existing configuration file without asking. 

Since I do not remember having been asked about overwriting the config
file on updating uptimed on my first notebook, I suspect that the
package just silently overwrites the config file on updates as well.

This leads to data loss, when one changed the maxrecords settings in
the config file without using dpkg-reconfigure uptimed. I selected
non-serious data loss, since there is no option in reportbug to select
serious data loss. I manually edited the Justification field to
"causes data loss" this time.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (450, 'testing'), (400, 'unstable'), (101, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32.8-tp23-toi-3.0.99.49 (PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages uptimed depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]       1.5.28       Debian configuration management sy
ii  libc6                       2.10.2-6     Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libuptimed0                 1:0.3.16-3.1 Library for uptimed

uptimed recommends no packages.

uptimed suggests no packages.

-- debconf information:
* uptimed/mail/do_mail: Both
* uptimed/mail/address: r...@localhost
* uptimed/interval: 43200
* uptimed/mail/milestones_info:
* uptimed/maxrecords: 25



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