[Pkg-roundcube-maintainers] Bug#478170: roundcube: files missing after install

[Luca Capello]

forcemerge 478170 588081
severity 478170 normal
thanks

Hi there!

I have just file bug #588081, before finding that it was already
reported (with a misleading title, sorry), bugs merged.

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:40:19 +0200, Vincent Bernat wrote:
> OoO En ce début de soirée  du dimanche 27 avril 2008, vers 21:58, Teodor
> <mteodor at gmail.com> disait:
>> On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 9:35 PM, Vincent Bernat <bernat at debian.org> wrote:
>>> If   you    install   earlier    versions   of   roundcube,    you   get
>>> /etc/default/roundcube.     This    file    has   been    replaced    by
>>> /etc/default/roundcube-core     (because    roundcube    is     now    a
>>> metapackage). Since  we don't want to  bother users that  did not modify
>>> this file, we ship this file instead:

No, this is completely wrong, for various reasons, the first being that
as Teodor pointed out, every dpkg command will include these files as
conffiles:

>> I see your point now: the files were moved from the 'roundcube'
>> package to 'roundcube-core' package. In this case the package should
>> not declare it owns these files.
>> The logic is that for any given package, the command "dpkg -L
>> PKG-NAME" will list the files and ALL of them should exist even if
>> empty.
>
> I want  to get rid of  /etc/default/roundcube since it is  useless. If I
> leave them, someone will file  a bug telling that roundcube leaves empty
> useless config files around.

Which would be a minor/wishlist bug, yes.

> However, I  cannot just simply drop  them from the  package because some
> people  installed earlier  version  of roundcube  package  and may  have
> modified /etc/default/roundcube.  They should be aware  that the content
> of it has moved to /etc/default/roundcube-core and I cannot do it myself
> because a package  do not have the right to mess  with files modified by
> the user. This is why roundcube ships an empty (with comments) file.

And this is completely wrong, you should instead move them as explained
in the Debian wiki <http://wiki.debian.org/DpkgConffileHandling> or,
better, through dpkg-maintscript-helper (included in dpkg >= 1.15.7.2).

> I could  add a debconf question  and many other workarounds  but this is
> cumbersome  and  overly complicated  while  the  current  fix relies  on
> standard conffiles mechanisms  with the only drawback that  dpkg -L will
> list files that do  not exist anymore.

This is not the only drawback, *every* dpkg command will consider them
as conffile and even reportbug will include them, see bug #588081.

> And I still fail to see why this is a bug.  As a user, I can delete
> myself a conffile. It still will be listed in dpkg -L.

With the exception that dpkg will specially treat this (now) deleted
file.  From the Debian Policy Manual, "Appendix E - Configuration file
handling (from old Packaging Manual)", "E.1 Automatic handling of
configuration files by dpkg":

  When a package is installed for the first time dpkg will install the
  file that comes with it, unless that would mean overwriting a file
  already on the file system.

  However, note that dpkg will not replace a conffile that was removed
  by the user (or by a script). This is necessary because with some
  programs a missing file produces an effect hard or impossible to
  achieve in another way, so that a missing file needs to be kept that
  way if the user did it.

  Note that a package should not modify a dpkg-handled conffile in its
  maintainer scripts. Doing this will lead to dpkg giving the user
  confusing and possibly dangerous options for conffile update when the
  package is upgraded.

  http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ap-pkg-conffiles.html#sE.1

In roundcube's postinst, you are exactly doing what you should not:
modifing a dpkg-handled conffile, bug severity raised to normal (not
serious because the Debian Policy extract above is a "should" and not a
"must" nor a "required").

Thx, bye,
Gismo / Luca
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