[Fedora-packaging] does removing a package also remove package data?
John Dennis
jdennis at redhat.com
Wed Nov 18 18:02:53 UTC 2009
On 11/18/2009 12:49 PM, Rex Dieter wrote:
> On 11/18/2009 11:44 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
>> John Dennis<jdennis at redhat.com> writes:
>>> My inclination is the packaging guidelines should encourage the removal
>>> of data files generated by the package when the package is removed.
>>
>> In the case of the database packages the longstanding policy is the
>> opposite. I can see encouraging packagers to remove orphaned preference
>> or configuration files, but not potentially-high-value user data.
>
> whole-heartedly agree, it's something that really is best managed on a
> case-by-case basis (probably one reason why it's not in the
> guidelines... yet).
Both Rex and Tom immediately converged on exactly the issue I was
thinking about, database style packages.
I can see a strong argument for preserving the content after package
removal, if this is the precedence I think the guidelines should at
least state this, but permit per-package interpretation as opposed to
enforcing a mandate.
However I can also see a strong argument for wanting a package to clean
up after itself so that a user does not have to find every place a
package has written files, which in many instances is not so easy to
discern. The principle of least surprise might suggest removing a
package removes everything associated with the package.
--
John Dennis <jdennis at redhat.com>
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