Re: Packages owning configuration files and configuration file samples: Current best practices?

On Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 1:02 PM Neal Gompa wrote:

On Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 6:55 AM Johannes Kastl wrote:

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Hi Thorsten,

On 08.04.24 08:58 Thorsten Kukuk wrote:

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On Sun, Apr 7, 2024 at 4:24 PM Johannes Kastl wrote:

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1. How should I handle files in /etc/openbao that should "belong" to the package, but should not be packaged at all (the admin needs to create that herself)? Not having the file in the package means that querying RPM will not yield which package this file belongs to. Of course, the directory name might give a hint, but I would like to have rpm answer that question properly. My most educated guess whould be to %ghost those files. Not sure if that is the right way]tm]. :-)

%ghost entries are the worst you can do. I know here are several

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think files created by an admin should belong to a package, but: since RPM does not know anything about this file and if it got modified or not, making package changes here later is impossible. We have enough

people who packages

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which suffer from this. So: don't use %ghost entries if not absolutely necessary.

OK.

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And: if the admin creates the file, it does not belong to the RPM! So don't create the wrong impression that this config file does belong to a RPM if it does not.

Thanks for this insight. I have not looked at it from this point of view. My idea was more like "files is related to package" or "file is used by package".

This guidance is wrong. %ghost entries ensure that data is cleaned up only on final uninstall. Leaving random crap all over the filesystem even after uninstall is a nightmare. You should use %ghost for known names of files that you do not create and either the admin or the software creates.

And this guidance is wrong, since your only example ignores all the problems we face with %ghost and has drawbacks. %ghost files will always get completely removed without *.rpmsave file, which also makes it impossible to e.g. rename the RPM if necessary. %ghost files are becoming a pain in the ass after some years, as written, we have enough examples. And as written, the file does not belong to the RPM, it's created by the admin. Thorsten -- Thorsten Kukuk, Distinguished Engineer, Senior Architect, Future Technologies SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH, Frankenstraße 146, 90461 Nuernberg, Germany Managing Director: Ivo Totev, Andrew McDonald, Werner Knoblich (HRB 36809, AG Nürnberg)