[Bug 985508] Re: dpkg-maintscript-helper 'mv_conffile' fails if target doesn't already exist

[Raphaël Hertzog]

On Thu, 19 Apr 2012, Andreas Rütten wrote:
> Neither the old 'rules' nor the new 'rules.v4' file are shipped within
> the package and so they are not a conffile.

In this case, effectively the usage of dpkg-maintscript-helper is
not welcome, it has clearly been written to deal with conffiles and
it tries to verify if the file is pristine or not
by looking into the "Conffiles" field of the package.

Since a non-conffile would never appear there, it will always assume
that the file has been modified by the admin and will thus always keep
a copy of the old file.

This "pristine check" is the main point of doing all this, otherwise a simple
mv in the preinst is generally enough.

Replying to the initial bug reporter:
>   The 'mv_conffile' function only works if the target file exists by the
>   postinst stage.

It should better exist since it's a new conffile and it has been just
installed by dpkg (at least that's the assumption made).

Cheers,
-- 
Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/985508

Title:
  dpkg-maintscript-helper 'mv_conffile' fails if target doesn't already
  exist

Status in “dpkg” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  The 'mv_conffile' function only works if the target file exists by the
  postinst stage.

  This means the function doesn't support those packages where the new
  configuration file is optional and may not exist at postinst stage.

  The case in point is 'iptables-persistent' where the new 'rules.v4'
  may not exists after installation. Bug #967018

  A simple guard in front of the 'mv' command would add support.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
  Package: dpkg 1.16.1.2ubuntu7
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-virtual 3.2.14
  Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-virtual x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu5
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Thu Apr 19 09:28:11 2012
  SourcePackage: dpkg
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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