retitle 192981 unchanged permissions of conffile should be updated severity 192981 wishlist thanks
I don't think it would be correct to overwrite the on-disk permissions of a conffile from the permissions in the package, just because neither the user nor package maintainer had changed the _contents_ of the file. The existing arrangements are specifically intended to preserve the decision of a user who merely makes a permissions change to a conffile. It might perhaps be desirable to update the permissions on the same basis as the contents: if the on-disk permissions (mode and ownership) are identical to those installed in the previous package, and the maintainer has shipped a package with different permissions, the on-disk copy should (by default) be updated, etc. However, that would require dpkg to record the permissions as well as the contents of the previously installed file, which it currently doesn't do. This might be a useful feature but I don't think the lack ought to be considered a bug. In the meantime in cases where it is important, the package maintainer can deal with the problem via maintainer scripts. There is no reason why a maintainer script should not (with appropriate care and probably after asking permission) adjust the permissions of a conffile. (Note that a maintainer script may not change the contents of a conffile.) To avoid problems if this wishlist item were ever to be implemented, a maintainer who writes a script which adjusts permissions without prompting (which is a dangerous thing to do and should only be done after very careful thought) should not set the permissions to anything other than identical to those shipped in the corresponding package filesystem archive. That will avoid spurious conffile permissions prompts from dpkg in this hypothetical future. Thanks, Ian. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
