Subject: Re: handling removed logfiles [was: Re: CVS commit: src/distrib/sets/lists/etc]
To: Alan Barrett <apb@cequrux.com>
From: Daniel Carosone <dan@geek.com.au>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 10/01/2006 09:02:59
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On Sat, Sep 30, 2006 at 09:29:05PM +0200, Alan Barrett wrote:
> I suggest a new keyword to be used in the set lists, meaning "obsolete,
> but likely to be precious".  "postinstall check" could print a list of
> such files; "postinstall fix obsolete" would *not* delete them, but
> "postinstall fix obsolete-but-precious" would delete them.

I think they're independent flags.  A current config or log file is
also likely to be precious. Pkgsrc deals with such files for pkg
updates, too.  Gentoo and opensolaris' BFU have similar mechanisms.

An advantage of this is that the precious (perhaps "preserve" is a
more usual term?) flag is set when the file is live in the setlist so
the person removing it later can see this.

Especially for config files, it's especially nice if there's an
organised way of storing the original config file elsewhere on disk,
so that you can do a three-way-merge between local and upstream
changes.  We already have part of what we need for this with the RCS
backups we keep, including a good starting list of "precious" files.

--
Dan.

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