John Hasler writes: > Just off the top of my head I see no reason why these files could not be > included in the package empty and filled in by the scripts. This would > identify the files as belonging to the package and also allow dpkg to > remove them, eliminating the need for the postrm to do so.
I think the canonical answer is that some programs will behave differently if a config file exists (even if empty) than if it doesn't exist. E.g., /etc/nologin -- you wouldn't want to ship that :-) Then there are some files that it's questionable who they would belong to. For instance, /etc/ld.so.conf needs to be modified by several packages; if it was owned by some package, it would be a Policy violation for any other package to touch it. Then someone would have to write an update-ld.so.conf script, which just seems like overkill. I agree that the vast majority of postinst-created files in /etc don't meet either of these criteria, so the suggestion makes sense there. My understanding is that there is long-term work planned on dpkg to allow registering a list of related files on package installation, even if they aren't actually in the package. -- Kevin B. McCarty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Physics Department WWW: http://www.princeton.edu/~kmccarty/ Princeton University GPG public key ID: 4F83C751 Princeton, NJ 08544 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]