Re: [gentoo-user] Cleaning redundant configuration files

[Florian Philipp]

Am 30.05.2011 20:05, schrieb David W Noon:
> On Mon, 30 May 2011 18:10:02 +0200, Neil Bothwick wrote about Re:
> [gentoo-user] Cleaning redundant configuration files:
>
>> On Mon, 30 May 2011 15:48:15 +0100, David W Noon wrote:
>>
>>> How does the tool of choice determine if a file is redundant or not?
>>>
>>> Just because a configuration file is not associated with a Portage
>>> package [any more] does not necessarily mean it is redundant.
>>
>> No, but it indicates the file warrants a closer look as it may be
>> orphaned. qfile is my tool of choice for this, it only list files and
>> deletes nothing.
>
> Indeed, I would be very wary of any tool that automatically deleted a
> configuration file without backing it up.
>
> The only algorithmic approach with which I would feel comfortable would
> be if the file were checked against the previous contents of a package
> and found present, but has disappeared from the new contents of that
> same package.  Even then, I would want manual confirmation.

This might also be one of the few cases where atime might be of
interest. If the file has not been accessed in the last complete
power-on/power-off cycle, chances are no application depends on it.

Of course, even then there are lots of false positives, for example
everything in /etc/skel

Regards,
Florian Philipp