Re: Question on maximum-rpm 4.1.1 Config file magic

[Jeff Johnson <jbj redhat com>]

On Sun, May 26, 2002 at 04:09:12PM -0400, Jim Knoble wrote:
> Circa 2002-May-26 12:37:52 -0400 dixit Jeff Johnson:
> 
> : On Sun, May 26, 2002 at 04:07:31AM +0200, Stef Van Vlierberghe wrote:
> : > I am puzzled by this Config file magic, its seems to assume that config 
> : > file contents is what needs to be carefully handled, and customizations 
> : > thereof should not be silently erased, while their attributes, i.e. 
> : > ownership and attributes require no similar attention, and can be freely 
> : > wiped out.
> : > 
> : > Knowing how many config files in the linux installation carry sematic in 
> : > their attributes, especially the execute permissions, I find this a very 
> : > weird assumption.
> : > 
> : > Is there some documentation clarifying why this would make sense ?
> : 
> : If I could find a definite question in the above, I'd be happy to
> : try to answer.
> 
> Stef is asking why the %config directive only preserves configuration
> file data and not metadata.  I'm not sure whether that's true (although
> for configuration directories such as /etc/cron.d/, /etc/profile.d/,
> /etc/xinetd.d/, etc., it may be true).

%config files preserve user metadata as well as contents, either by renaming
the existing file with extension .rpmsave, or by installing the new file
with extension .rpmnew, depending on whether the modifier "(noreplace)" is
used.

Yes, the name of the file changes, and that (in some sense) is
a change in metadata, but that's life with rpm, which has to do
something with the existing and new files.

There's no such thing as a %config marked directory in a package.

73 de Jeff

-- 
Jeff Johnson	ARS N3NPQ
jbj@redhat.com (jbj@jbj.org)
Chapel Hill, NC