Re: Question on maximum-rpm 4.1.1 Config file magic

["Mike A. Harris" <mharris opensourceadvocate org>]

On Sun, 26 May 2002, Jeff Johnson wrote:

>> 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.

I've seen some rpm packages that flag dirs with %config and shook 
my head.  I presumed it either was some crack the packager was 
smoking that rpm just ignored, or it was a distro specific rpm 
hack.  I wont mention the distro.  ;o)
One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that,
lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination
of their C programs.  -- Robert Firth