[Piuparts-devel] Bug#561444: piuparts: install, remove configuration files, re-install, check that configuration files does not re-appear

[Tollef Fog Heen]

Package: piuparts
Severity: wishlist

As per subject, I believe we have quite a few postinsts that think that
«no file» means «please reinstall original configuration file» and this
test should hopefully catch that.

The test should do the following:

- install package X
- remove any (or all?) configuration files belonging to package X, as
  determined by a diff of when all its dependencies have been installed
  and when the package itself is installed.  Probably blacklist special
  files like alternatives and rc.d links from this list.
- install package X again
- make sure the configuration files do not reappear.

However, this probably uncovers the need for something like dpkg's
--force-confmiss (for non-conffile configuration files) that can be
passed to dpkg or dpkg-reconfigure and that postinsts can respect.
That's something that should be put in policy though.

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen 
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are