[Fedora-directory-users] FHS packaging - combine old and new with symlinks

[Richard Megginson]

Mark A. Schwenk wrote:
> Mike Jackson wrote:
>> Mark A. Schwenk wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> For example copying /etc/named.conf to /etc/named.conf.bak before 
>>> modifying it and then afterward discovering that /etc/named.conf and 
>>> /etc/named.conf.bak are now both symbolic links to the same changed 
>>> copy of the real file in /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf.
>>
>>
>> Which filesystem are you using?
>>
>> Ext3:
>>
>> # echo foobar > 1
>> # ln -s 1 2
>> # cp 2 3
>> # ls -al
>> -rw-r--r--  1 jacksonm users  7 Jul 17 22:17 1
>> lrwxrwxrwx  1 jacksonm users 10 Jul 17 22:18 2 -> 1
>> -rw-r--r--  1 jacksonm users  7 Jul 17 22:18 3
>>
>>
>
> Ext3. Right you are. I was trying to quickly provide an example of how 
> the symbolic links can bite back and didn't think through it clearly.
>
> How about this:
>
> # mv /etc/named.conf /etc/named.conf.bak
> # cp /etc/named.conf.bak /etc/named.conf
>
> At this point /etc/named.conf.bak is a symbolic link to 
> /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf and /etc/named.conf is a regular file.
>
> Then editing the /etc/named.conf file no longer modifies the real 
> source file at /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf.
That's bad, and exactly what would/could happen with my proposal.  Even 
if we swap the direction of the symlinks, it would still break in the 
other way i.e. if you tried to do the same thing under 
/opt/fedora-ds/slapd-instance/config - and if you tried to 
backup/restore with tar, you would either be getting only the symlinks, 
or if following symlinks, they would be broken upon restore.

So, is there a way to have both?  If not symlinks, then what?
>
> -Mark Schwenk
>
> -- 
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