Debian bug report logs - #1019
dpkg conffiles processing

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From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: Bill Mitchell <mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com>, debian-bugs-done@pixar.com,
        Debian developers list <debian-devel@pixar.com>
Subject: Re: Bug#1019: dpkg conffiles processing

Bill Mitchell writes ("Bug#1019: dpkg conffiles processing"):
> Yesterday, redoing the kermit package to make its /etc/skel
> files conffiles, all seemed well.  Today, I can't get the
> conffiles to install, can't get a prompt offering to
> install differing conffiles on upgrade if I change the
> installed ones, and can't get the conffiles to install
> if I remove and reinstall the package.

I've read the session transcript you quote, and it doesn't look to me
like there's a bug there.

The whole point of conffiles processing is that dpkg won't mess about
with your existing conffiles by mistake.  If you edit or delete a
conffile dpkg won't reinstall it for you - it assumes you meant to
edit or delete it.  (For several programs the non-existence of a
configuration file is not equal to the existence of an empty one - a
nonexistent file often pulls in a compiled-in default configuration.)

dpkg.pl should ask you if the package maintainer has modified the file
contained in the package.  If this isn't the case please report it
again, with a -D transcript of the run where you up/down-grade between
versions containing differing config files.

The C version of will prompt even less - if the user hasn't modified
their copy of the file and the package maintainer has modified theirs
then it will by default install the new version without prompting.

Ian.

Message received at debian-bugs:

From mdd.comm.mot.com!mitchell Sun Jun 18 20:51:18 1995
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Date: Sun, 18 Jun 1995 20:51:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bill Mitchell <mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com>
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Subject: dpkg conffiles processing
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PACKAGE:  dpkg
VERSION 0.93.42
PACKAGE_REVISION: 0

Yesterday, redoing the kermit package to make its /etc/skel
files conffiles, all seemed well.  Today, I can't get the
conffiles to install, can't get a prompt offering to
install differing conffiles on upgrade if I change the
installed ones, and can't get the conffiles to install
if I remove and reinstall the package.

Here's selected output from three "dpkg -D" runs, first 
updating kermit with a differing conffile, then updating
after deleting the conffiles, then reinstalling after
removing kermit and deleting the conffiles.  In all cases,
I end up with no conffiles installed.

D: running pre-installation script = /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/preinst upgrade -
D: conffile /etc/skel/.mykermrc drf /etc/skel/.mykermrc warns `'
D: conffile /etc/skel/.kdd drf /etc/skel/.kdd warns `'
D: conffile /etc/skel/.ksd drf /etc/skel/.ksd warns `'
D: new hash, after unpack, of /etc/skel/.mykermrc, is ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc
D: new hash, after unpack, of /etc/skel/.kdd, is 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e
D: new hash, after unpack, of /etc/skel/.ksd, is ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7
D: amended kermit
D: called write_database_file /var/lib/dpkg/updates/000, important=1, for kermit
D: important database prepared
D: &middle_install()
D: &deferred_install(kermit) (1: 0)
D: checking dependencies of kermit (- )
D: ok 2 msgs >><<
Setting up kermit ...
D: conffiles updating >
 /etc/skel/.mykermrc ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc
 /etc/skel/.kdd 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e
 /etc/skel/.ksd ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7<
D: old hash of /etc/skel/.mykermrc is ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc
D: old hash of /etc/skel/.kdd is 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e
D: old hash of /etc/skel/.ksd is ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7
D: conffile /etc/skel/.mykermrc drf /etc/skel/.mykermrc warns `'
D: new hash of /etc/skel/.mykermrc is ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc (old ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc)
D: the decision - diff ; usenew 0 prompt 
D: decided, usenew 0
D: conffile /etc/skel/.kdd drf /etc/skel/.kdd warns `'
D: new hash of /etc/skel/.kdd is 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e (old 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e)
D: the decision - diff ; usenew 0 prompt 
D: decided, usenew 0
D: conffile /etc/skel/.ksd drf /etc/skel/.ksd warns `'
D: new hash of /etc/skel/.ksd is ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7 (old ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7)
D: the decision - diff ; usenew 0 prompt 
D: decided, usenew 0

After this, "md5sum /etc/skel/.mkerm*" reports:

d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e  /etc/skel/.mykermrc
ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc  /etc/skel/.mykermrc.dpkg-new

I got no prompting about updating conffiles, and the old conffiles
are still in place.

I removed /etc/skel/.my* and /etc/skel/.kd*, and re-ran dpkg

D: running pre-installation script = /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/preinst upgrade -
D: conffile /etc/skel/.mykermrc drf /etc/skel/.mykermrc warns `'
D: conffile /etc/skel/.kdd drf /etc/skel/.kdd warns `'
D: conffile /etc/skel/.ksd drf /etc/skel/.ksd warns `'
D: new hash, after unpack, of /etc/skel/.mykermrc, is ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc
D: new hash, after unpack, of /etc/skel/.kdd, is 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e
D: new hash, after unpack, of /etc/skel/.ksd, is ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7
D: amended kermit
D: called write_database_file /var/lib/dpkg/updates/000, important=1, for kermit
D: important database prepared
D: &middle_install()
D: &deferred_install(kermit) (1: 0)
D: checking dependencies of kermit (- )
D: ok 2 msgs >><<
Setting up kermit ...
D: conffiles updating >
 /etc/skel/.mykermrc ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc
 /etc/skel/.kdd 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e
 /etc/skel/.ksd ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7<
D: old hash of /etc/skel/.mykermrc is ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc
D: old hash of /etc/skel/.kdd is 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e
D: old hash of /etc/skel/.ksd is ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7
D: conffile /etc/skel/.mykermrc drf /etc/skel/.mykermrc warns `'
D: new hash of /etc/skel/.mykermrc is ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc (old ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc)
D: the decision - diff ; usenew 0 prompt 
D: decided, usenew 0
D: conffile /etc/skel/.kdd drf /etc/skel/.kdd warns `'
D: new hash of /etc/skel/.kdd is 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e (old 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e)
D: the decision - diff ; usenew 0 prompt 
D: decided, usenew 0
D: conffile /etc/skel/.ksd drf /etc/skel/.ksd warns `'
D: new hash of /etc/skel/.ksd is ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7 (old ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7)
D: the decision - diff ; usenew 0 prompt 
D: decided, usenew 0

I got no prompting about updating conffiles, ls -a /etc/skel says:

.		    .bash_profile	.kdd.dpkg-new	    .mykermrc.dpkg-new
..		    .bashrc		.ksd.dpkg-new

I did a "dpkg --remove kermit" and deleted the /etc/skel files left behind,
then did a "dpkg --install kermit-190-4.deb" again.

Selecting previously deselected package kermit.
Unpacking ./kermit-190-4.deb, containing kermit ...
D: running pre-installation script = /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/preinst upgrade -
D: conffile /etc/skel/.mykermrc drf /etc/skel/.mykermrc warns `'
D: conffile /etc/skel/.kdd drf /etc/skel/.kdd warns `'
D: conffile /etc/skel/.ksd drf /etc/skel/.ksd warns `'
D: new hash, after unpack, of /etc/skel/.mykermrc, is ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc
D: new hash, after unpack, of /etc/skel/.kdd, is 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e
D: new hash, after unpack, of /etc/skel/.ksd, is ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7
D: amended kermit
D: called write_database_file /var/lib/dpkg/updates/000, important=1, for kermit
D: important database prepared
D: &middle_install()
D: &deferred_install(kermit) (1: 0)
D: checking dependencies of kermit (- )
D: ok 2 msgs >><<
Setting up kermit ...
D: conffiles updating >
 /etc/skel/.mykermrc ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc
 /etc/skel/.kdd 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e
 /etc/skel/.ksd ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7<
D: old hash of /etc/skel/.mykermrc is ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc
D: old hash of /etc/skel/.kdd is 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e
D: old hash of /etc/skel/.ksd is ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7
D: conffile /etc/skel/.mykermrc drf /etc/skel/.mykermrc warns `'
D: new hash of /etc/skel/.mykermrc is ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc (old ec072fa4c6cb4aefe8a55db832427afc)
D: the decision - diff ; usenew 0 prompt 
D: decided, usenew 0
D: conffile /etc/skel/.kdd drf /etc/skel/.kdd warns `'
D: new hash of /etc/skel/.kdd is 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e (old 19dbdf743409e7d1ac32d571eb172e5e)
D: the decision - diff ; usenew 0 prompt 
D: decided, usenew 0
D: conffile /etc/skel/.ksd drf /etc/skel/.ksd warns `'
D: new hash of /etc/skel/.ksd is ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7 (old ba4f8376a2870dd280061412def69aa7)
D: the decision - diff ; usenew 0 prompt 
D: decided, usenew 0
D: running post-installation script = /var/lib/dpkg/info/kermit.postinst configure

root:0.93# ls -a /etc/skel
.		    .bash_profile	.kdd.dpkg-new	    .mykermrc.dpkg-new
..		    .bashrc		.ksd.dpkg-new


mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell)