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On Wednesday 01 June 2011 19:53:32 David W Noon wrote: |
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> On Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:20:02 +0200, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote about |
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> |
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> Re: [gentoo-user] Cleaning redundant configuration files: |
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> >On Wednesday 01 June 2011 15:57:58 David W Noon wrote: |
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> [snip] |
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> |
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> >> I called it an "annoyance". Having to clean up obsolete |
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> >> configuration files is just that, unless you can offer a better term. |
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> > |
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> >so - what happens when you uninstall a package to cleanly install it |
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> >again? |
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> > |
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> >Happens from time to time - and I seriously would not want to see the |
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> >carefully personalized config file be moved to the big blue electron |
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> >pool in heaven. |
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> |
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> That's easy: if you know you are going to reinstall after deleting, |
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> just take a backup copy of those files you have modified, which is |
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> usually only the one configuration file. After the reinstallation, |
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> restore from your backup. |
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> |
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> Alternatively, you can switch the suggested option to "off", either on |
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> the command line or in /etc/make.conf. |
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> |
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> This is a fairly rare occurrence, and it should be planned -- including |
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> the making of a backup. |
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no, usually something like this happens at 2:30 am without planning because |
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the last -uD world fucked everything up and you have tried all other options |
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in the last hours. And losing your pure-ftpd user database because of a |
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mistype in portage options is a complete nightmare. |
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There is a simple rule in computing: |
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NEVER remove user created data |
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that also applies to config files. |
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There are ways to check if a file is still needed by something in your system. |
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But portage has no business touching something that is not in the same state |
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as it was when it was installed. |