Bug#355746: [Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#355746: Warn on installation of bootclean if bootclean.sh was modified?

[Thomas Hood]

Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> There is another way:
> 
> In *preinst*, check if a modified /etc/init.d/bootclean.sh file is present.
> If it is, move it to /etc/init.d/bootclean.
> 
> That will cause dpkg to output the usual conffile modified stuff.


Yes, that is the right way to handle scripts that are merely renamed.  However,
more than renaming happened when bootclean.sh was replaced by bootclean.  The
former merely defines some functions which the sourcer can later call in order
to clean things.  The latter goes ahead and cleans.  For this reason I regard
bootclean as a new and different script.  (There are also quite a few changes
to the code.  Diff reports almost no lines in common.)  It would never really
make sense for the admin to opt to just "keep" the old bootclean.sh as
/etc/init.d/bootclean.

Nevertheless it _would_ be _safe_ to do what you suggest.  Assume bootclean.sh
has been changed; the dpkg will ask the admin if he/she agrees to update
bootclean.  If the admin says "install new version" then everything is fine.
If the admin says "keep old version" then the result will be that no cleaning
will happen.

Still, what I don't like about this scheme is that it will strongly suggest to
admins that bootclean.sh has just been renamed, not fundamentally changed,
and this will inevitably confuse people.
-- 
Thomas