[2936] in RedHat Linux List
Re: RPM clobbers files
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim Baverstock)
Wed Nov 6 05:09:38 1996
From: Tim Baverstock <warwick@mmm.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 10:07:31 GMT
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
In-reply-to: <199611060746.CAA09820@redhat.com> (redhat-digest-request@redhat.com)
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Donnie Barnes <djb@redhat.com> wrote:
[Tim Baverstock <warwick@mmm.co.uk> wrote:]
>> It sounds like it would be handy to be able to list all those files which
>> would be clobbered by a given RPM, which no longer match the original
>> installation. rpm -Vp, perhaps? Or have I missed something which does
>> this already? (I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to cook something up with
>> sort and uniq)
>
> Come on folks...think about what you are saying. "All" files that
> no longer match the original installation would be all the
> binaries, libs, etc. I think here you mean "All" the config files.
I meant, of course, `the extant installation' - `original' in the sense of
`before the proposed upgrade' rather than `factory fresh' - that is, any
file which this RPM intends to clobber, but whose checksum no longer
matches the one recorded for it in the current RPM database (as per -V).
I had imagined this to be evident from foregoing posts.
As someone pointed out, this would usually only flag changed config files,
but I can think of a particularly nightmarish day when another brand of
Linux cheerfully deleted a whole slew of customised binaries, only four
hours after a complete system backup (mercifully). The specifics were
different, but the principle very much the same.
I can think of no file which should not be preserved by default if it
fails to match its signature in the RPM database - even binaries and
logfiles - with the singular exception of cache files or other transients.
Surely it would be a much safer mistake in RPM building to forget to mark
something as `can be deleted, even if its signature is different'?
--saveall could instruct RPM to make .rpmsaves of any files which don't
match their checksum, even if marked as a transient - a sort of stronger
default.
Granted, we should be vigilant and careful as root, but since the
computer's much better at spotting this sort of thing than we are, it
makes sense to me that it should assist, in much the same way that many
alias rm="rm -i". It's far easier to \rm `find \ -name \*.rpmsave` after
the event, than back things up beforehand and miss something.
It may also be an idea to have .rpmsave become .rpmsave.YYMMDD.vvvv?
Forgive me if I sound a bit short, but I'm unused to being told `think
about what you are saying' in a constructive dialogue, by a relative
stranger.
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