Sven Joachim schrieb: > On 2010-01-05 17:48 +0100, Malte Forkel wrote: > >> When upgrading a package, the user can specify how a configuration file >> should be handled that has been modified on the local systems. >> >> Depending on the user's choice, a file with the extension dpkg-old, >> dpkg-new or dpkg-dist might be created besides the configuration file. >> Could someone please explain the semantics of these files? I.e., what >> are the conditions for each of them to get created, what does each of >> them contain? > > The .dpkg-new extension is used during unpacking, and you should not see > any such files after the packages have been configured. > > If any conffiles (= configuration files contained in the package) have > been locally modified, and their content in the package has changed, > dpkg will prompt you whether you want to keep your modified version or > install the one from the package maintainer. If you choose the latter > option, your changed file is backed up with a .dpkg-old extension; if > you keep your version, the new packaged version is installed with a > .dpkg-dist extension. > > Sven > >
Thanks for your explanation. After my upgrade to lenny, there are two files with the dpkg-new extension left in /etc. On the other hand, the three dpkg-new files that were there before the upgrade have disappeared. I'll try to find out why. In the end, I would like to write a simple merge skript for configuration files. This has been suggested before, e.g. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=32877. Has anybody already implemented this? Malte -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
