What does yum do when an updated package requires a new configuration file?

[Robert Locke]

On Fri, 2005-04-08 at 02:26 +0200, Julien Le Houérou wrote:
> Tim Largy wrote:
> 
> >Hi,
> >
> >What does yum do when an updated package calls for a new configuration
> >file? A concrete (though made up) example: a new version of samba is
> >installed, and the syntax of /etc/samba/smb.conf has changed
> >sufficiently that the existing smb.conf is unreasonable or no longer
> >valid. (Of course in real life this hasn't happened with samba for a
> >while.) I presume that yum would notify me (how?), as well as save my
> >old smb.conf to a new name so that I could merge it with the new
> >version. The yum man page doesn't address this however.
> >
> >Tim
> >
> >  
> >
> The existing config file for packages such as services or daemons 
> remains unchanged, the new one is saved as (in case of samba) : 
> /etc/samba/smb.conf.RPMNEW as wells as it notifies you at install time.
> This is performed by rpm and not by yum.
> 

Yes, this is performed by rpm, but you need to take it a step further.
The question was not what happens if the config file has "minorly
changed" but rather what happens if there is a major change.  This is
actually decided within the rpmbuild process as part of the spec file.
Most likely, in his case, it would rename the original file with
a .rpmsave extension and put the new file in its place.  Only if the
configuration file is marked with (noreplace) in the spec file would it
do as you described and this is normally done when there has not been
any kind of major change in the configuration file syntax or options.

--Rob