[Pkg-clamav-devel] Bug#902290: Too abrupt removal of configuration option in stable update

[Hans van Kranenburg]

Package: clamav-daemon
Version: 0.100.0+dfsg-0+deb8u1
Severity: serious

Hi,

"Tonight on 'It's the Mind', we examine the phenomenon of deja vu. That
strange feeling we sometimes get that we've lived through something
before, that what is happening now has already happened. Tonight on
'It's the Mind' we examine the phenomenon of deja vu, that strange
feeling we sometimes get that we've ... (looks puzzled for a moment)
Anyway, tonight on 'It's the Mind' we examine the phenomenon of deja vu,
that strange..." (Monty Python)

I had a deja vu today. See #826406. The stable update of clamav
installed by unattended last night again broke production mail servers.

My mailserver logs now contain 'ERROR: Parse error at line 74: Unknown
option StatsHostID', and when that's removed, it reports the next option
that is removed, 'StatsPEDisabled', and so on.

Clamav really has to change handling removed configuration parameters
into warnings or something, instead of refusing to start at all. The
current behaviour just makes no sense.

Or, alternatively when throwing newer versions in stable, they have to
be closely inspected to detect options that are removed and get patches
like you did for #826406.

I will as well inspect the config file I use to see if I can get rid of
options that have default value or are not critical, to lower the risk
of this happening again.

Thanks,

-- 
Hans van Kranenburg