[Pkg-puppet-devel] Bug#571130: Bug#571130: puppet-common: Package purge should remove all puppet directories

[Mathias Gug]

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 01:35:35PM -0800, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Mathias Gug <mathiaz at ubuntu.com> writes:
> 
> > Agreed - that's the point of view of never ever delete a file created by
> > the user. OTOH by purging a package one may want to start a new
> > configuration from scratch in a well-known state (which means that there
> > aren't any files left over from a previous package installation).
> 
> Right, which is why you remove all files owned by the package.  But rm -rf
> of the entire directory goes beyond that.  I think purge should rm -f each
> file in /etc/puppet that is installed by the package, and then remove the
> /etc/puppet directory if it's empty.
> 

Considering that puppet templates are stored under /etc/puppet/templates/
purging the puppet-common package would *not* remove the local templates. Upon
package re-installation the old templates files would still be around -
defeating the intent of purging a package in order to start a new configuration
from scratch.

I guess the correct solution depends on what are the expectations about the
state of a purged package and how the package should behave upon reinstallation
after purge.

Another solution could be to move the content of /etc/puppet/ to
/var/backups/puppet-version_something/ *before* rm -rf /etc/puppet/. That way
local files are not lost on package purge and could be rescued by the local
user while still providing a clean start configuration if the package gets
reinstalled.

-- 
Mathias Gug
Ubuntu Developer  http://www.ubuntu.com