This one time, at band camp, Mathias Gug said: > On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 01:35:35PM -0800, Russ Allbery wrote: > > Mathias Gug <math...@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.
We've gone around this sort of argument several times since I've been involved with Debian, and the outcome has always seemed to be: do not throw away user data. The Right Thing(TM) would be to only delete what is shipped with puppet and use rmdir /etc/puppet at the end. This will throw a warning that /etc/puppet isn't empty and can't be removed, so the admin who really wants a clean slate can rm -rf the directory themselves, and the rest of us who expect a Debian package to not eat our data won't be deeply disappointed. Cheers, -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ,''`. Stephen Gran | | : :' : sg...@debian.org | | `. `' Debian user, admin, and developer | | `- http://www.debian.org | ----------------------------------------------------------------- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
