Package: dpkg Version: 1.21.1 Severity: wishlist Dear Maintainer,
it would be useful if Debian-specific programs called from a maintainer script would know which dpkg operation (i.e. install / upgrade / configure / remove / purge) is currently being executed. For example, a future enhanced version of deluser might have functions to lock an account on uninstall and remove it on purge of the requesting package. Currently, that would need postrm code like case "$1" in uninstall) deluser --uninstall $user ;; purge) deluser --purge $user ;; esac If dpkg would define an environment variable DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_OPERATION in addition to the already existing DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_NAME, a simple cal of deluser --system $user could know by itself whether it is called from a postrm executing an uninstall or a purge operation and behave appropriately. I am pretty sure that I could come up with other usecases that would augment the already existing DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_* envvars, it's just the operation that seems to be missing. Thanks for considering. Greetings Marc