sendmail update left me in a fix

[Brian Morrison]

On 10/04/2006 Peter J. Holzer wrote:
> > That's when the config file has essential changes for the updated
> > package to work at all, and hence must be installed. The rpmsave 
> > file is there as a hint that you need to merge your previous changes with 
> > the new format.
> 
> How does RPM decide whether the changes are "essential"? Is there a 
> flag in the SPEC file?

It is decided by whoever writes the spec file. Suppose that the default
config settings for a program have changed after a major revision
increment, so new entries are required and old ones *must* be removed.
The only way to do this is to use a new config file template and save
the old config file.

The spec file has the appropriate entries to force an overwrite after
the backup has been done, and there should be a message to tell the
system administrator to review things.

The answer is never to blindly update in this way without checking what
is changing.

-- 

Brian Morrison

bdm at fenrir.org.uk