[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#589561: Bug#589561: init.d/Scripts are not considered conffiles

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Mon, 19 Jul 2010, Ralph Ulrich wrote:
> For a user removing a package but not purging, it is totally
> non-intuitive that remaining start scripts may cause some trouble in
> the future. These scripts are seen as NOT-editable und thus
> considered to be NO conffiles.

There is the bug.  This is Debian.  Anything in /etc *IS* a config file or a
conffile, unless it is explicitly marked on top to be auto-generated based
on other config/conffiles in /etc.   Bugs in that area (non-config/conffiles
in /etc) are release-critical, and severely frowned upon.

The fix here is to get new Debian users to understand that.  We have this
strict and strong policy for more than a decade, it is not changing anytime
soon.

> How do you handle a not removed init.d/SCRIPT, that is reused by the
> user for granted to implement something new he _wants_ ?

If we get confused by it, we tell the local admin to handle it.  That is why
anyone with root powers is called the local *administrator*.  He touched the
scripts, he becomes responsible for them.  It *is* that simple.

If he didn't touch the scripts, it is a bug somewhere.  If it gets reported,
it will be eventually fixed.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh