Re: postinstall wiped out my /etc/rc changes

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

On Fri, 2 May 2008 17:23:51 +0200
Alan Barrett <apb%cequrux.com@localhost> wrote:

> On Fri, 02 May 2008, Sverre Froyen wrote:
> > etcupdate runs postinstall which prompted me to run postinstall fix
> > rc.  Doing so reinstalled the original /etc/rc and wiped out my
> > local modifications.
> 
> Yes, that's what "postinstall fix rc" is designed to do.  The output
> from the earlier "postinstall check" (which was run by etcupdate)
> would have included messages about which source files differed from
> your installed files.
> 
> If there's a bug here, it's that the messages printed by "postinstall
> check" were not clear enough to alert you to what would happen when
> you ran "postinstall fix rc".  I expect that patches to improve that
> situation would be welcome.
> 
I think it's more complex than that.  It isn't obvious -- at least not
to me -- which files in /etc are "owned" by the system (and hence are
fair game for auto-replacement), and which are owned by the
administrator.  (I raised similar questions a few months ago about the
power management scripts.)  We need a clear, clean way to make that
distinction, and to make it obvious to the community.


                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb