Debian Bug report logs - #13810
dpkg badly handles replacement of erased conffile

Toggle useless messages

Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: wichert@wi.LeidenUniv.nl

To: submit@bugs.debian.org

Subject: kbd: Nasty error while installing kbd

Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 14:24:51 +0200 (CEST)

Package: kbd
Version: 0.94-5

See this transcript:

Setting up kbd (0.94-5) ...

Configuration file `/etc/kbd/config'
 ==> File on system created by you or by a script.
 ==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
   What would you like to do about it ?  Your options are:
    Y or I  : install the package maintainer's version
    N or O  : keep your currently-installed version
      Z     : background this process to examine the situation
 The default action is to keep your current version.
*** config (Y/I/N/O/Z) [default=N] ? y
dpkg: kbd: warning - failed to link `/etc/kbd/config' to `/etc/kbd/config.dpkg-old': No such file or directory
Installing new version of config file /etc/kbd/config ...



-- System Information
Debian Release: 1.3
Kernel Version: Linux pc135a 2.0.31 #2 Tue Oct 7 17:29:27 CEST 1997 i586 unknown

Versions of the packages kbd depends on:
libc6	Version: 2.0.5c-0.1

--- Begin /etc/kbd/config (modified conffile)

--- End /etc/kbd/config

Message #10 received at 13810@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Yann Dirson <dwitch@monge.univ-mlv.fr>

To: wichert@wi.LeidenUniv.nl, 13810@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#13810: kbd: Nasty error while installing kbd

Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 21:08:34 +0200

wichert@wi.LeidenUniv.nl writes:
 > Configuration file `/etc/kbd/config'
...
 > *** config (Y/I/N/O/Z) [default=N] ? y
 > dpkg: kbd: warning - failed to link `/etc/kbd/config' to `/etc/kbd/config.dpkg-old': No such file or directory
 > Installing new version of config file /etc/kbd/config ...

Mmm... I guess you had installed at least 2 of my buggy releases,
which ended up with a missing /etc/kbd/config conffile. It seems that
dpkg can't handle this well (though it is documented that it handles
removed conffiles, in other details).

Thus:

- it seems just safe to ignore this message
- I'd like to know which `dpkg' version you use. 

I'll myself do a test, and send a bug to `dpkg' if it was not fixed in
1.4.0.19. I'll let this bug-report open to try to prevent others from
reporting ;)

Cheers,
-- 
Yann Dirson  <dirson@univ-mlv.fr>        | Stop making M$-Bill richer & richer,
alt-email: <ydirson@a2points.com>        |     support Debian GNU/Linux:
                                         |         more powerful, more stable !
http://www.a2points.com/homepage/3475232 |
		    -----------------------------------------
		    A computer engineer's looking for a job !
		    -----------------------------------------

Message #15 received at 13810@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@wi.leidenuniv.nl>

To: Yann Dirson <dirson@univ-mlv.fr>, 13810@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#13810: kbd: Nasty error while installing kbd

Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 10:25:37 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Previously Yann Dirson wrote:
> Mmm... I guess you had installed at least 2 of my buggy releases,
> which ended up with a missing /etc/kbd/config conffile. It seems that

That could very well be. I have the habit of running dselect to upgrade
my system to bleeding-edge unstable every morning I arrive at work, so
all buggy packages get a chance to wreck havoc.

> - it seems just safe to ignore this message
> - I'd like to know which `dpkg' version you use. 

I'm using dpkg 1.4.0.19.
BTW: thanks for the quick response!

Wichert.

-- 
==============================================================================
This combination of bytes forms a message written to you by Wichert Akkerman.
E-Mail: wakkerma@wi.LeidenUniv.nl
WWW: http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/~wakkerma/

[Message part 2 (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #24 received at 13810@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Yann Dirson <ydirson@a2points.com>

To: 13810@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Explanation of reassignement to dpkg

Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 01:22:49 +0100

When upgrading a conffile, dpkg first renames it with a backup
extension.

When the conffile has been removed (situation which is officially
supported), the attempt to rename it causes a warning such as this
one:

> dpkg: kbd: warning - failed to link `/etc/kbd/config' to `/etc/kbd/config.dpkg-old': No such file or directory

-- 
Yann Dirson  <ydirson@a2points.com>      | Stop making M$-Bill richer & richer,
alt-email:     <dirson@univ-mlv.fr>      |     support Debian GNU/Linux:
debian-email:   <dirson@debian.org>      |         more powerful, more stable !
http://www.a2points.com/homepage/3475232 |
                    -----------------------------------------
                    A computer engineer's looking for a job !
                    -----------------------------------------

Send a report that this bug log contains spam.