Re: taking control of another package's file

[James Olin Oden <james oden gmail com>]

On 2/9/06, Joe Van Dyk <joevandyk gmail com> wrote:
> On 2/8/06, Joe Van Dyk <joevandyk gmail com> wrote:
> > I'm creating an RPM that creates a new /etc/auto.master file (for
> > automounting directories).
> >
> > Currently, the autofs package owns this file.  So when I try to
> > install my RPM that overwrites /etc/auto.master, it complains about a
> > conflict between my RPM and the autofs RPM.
> >
> > What's the correct resolution here?
>
> Essentially, I'm trying package up all of the custom things we do to
> our linux machines here so we can version control the changes and be
> able to automatically update all the machines with the same
> configuration.
>
> What I'm doing now is creating a rpm called "our_org_changes".  In it
> are sub-packages called "adjust_shared_memory_maximums",
> "create_automounts", "enable_ntp", etc.  The sub packages are what
> create or modify configuration files and add services to the
> appropriate run levels.  The main package doesn't really do much of
> anything.  I guess it should depend on all the sub packages, right?
>
> Does my approach make any sense at all?
>
> Thanks,
> Joe
>
Joe,

What we do where I work, and I have seen others on this list do, is
create a package that delivers the files you want to replace to a
different location.  Then in the post scriptlet of this package cat
the delivered files, over the top of the files you wish to replace. 
Its quite simple and does not violate the original packages file
ownership.

Cheers...james