Bug#888549: Should dpkg remove /etc/opt/ on package removal?

[Simon McVittie]

On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 at 22:52:32 +0100, Guillem Jover wrote:
> On Sat, 2018-01-27 at 09:46:32 -0500, Jeremy Bicha wrote:
> > One of the supported browsers upstream is Google Chrome, which Google
> > installs to /opt/chrome/ . According to the FHS, that means its
> > configuration should be stored in /etc/opt/chrome/ . To support Google
> > Chrome, chrome-gnome-shell must install files to /etc/opt/chrome/ .
> 
> I don't find the FHS very clear on the /etc/opt topic, TBH. Can for
> example third-party applications read also /etc/<package> if it's
> present? That could perhaps be another solution, don't know.

If Chrome doesn't actually do this, then wondering whether it would be
allowed to do so doesn't necessarily help us: chrome-gnome-shell supports
(among others) Google Chrome, not a hypothetical better browser similar
to Google Chrome. One of the notable properties that Chrome has is
that as a proprietary binary, we have very limited control over how it
behaves. It's Google's choice where it will install and which integration
points it offers, not ours.

(Arguably there is a non-hypothetical better browser similar to Google
Chrome, and it's called Chromium - but Chrome has some functionality that
Chromium doesn't, so there are reasons to prefer each one over the other.)

    smcv