On Tue, 15 Feb 2011, Tony Houghton wrote: > I don't like about it is that init scripts get left behind when > uninstalling packages.
Configuration files are always left behind unless you purge a package. > It wouldn't be quite so bad if packages called update-rc.d disable > on their init scripts when removed so that init doesn't read the > disused scripts, but AFAICT from the Policy Manual (sec 9.3.3.1) > that isn't standard behaviour. The standard behavior is to exit 0 in the init script if the package is no longer installed; that's a fairly reasonable thing to do. > The fact that they aren't ordinary config files can cause a problem > if you delete one or break it badly during editing. This is the same issue that you have with /etc/default/* and many other configuration files; editing them can break the configuration and cause things not to work properly. > How about I file a wishlist bug for dpkg and apt for an option > similar to purge but which only purges files which haven't been > altered from the package's default? I've personally never had a use case for such an option myself; either you want the package installed, you want it removed for now, but may reinstall it later, or you never want to reinstall it again. [And you were looking for --force-confmiss, btw.] Don Armstrong -- PowerPoint is symptomatic of a certain type of bureaucratic environment: one typified by interminable presentations with lots of fussy little bullet-points and flashy dissolves and soundtracks masked into the background, to try to convince the audience that the goon behind the computer has something significant to say. -- Charles Stross _The Jennifer Morgue_ p33 http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-mentors-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110215220620.gz17...@rzlab.ucr.edu