On Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 6:55 AM Johannes Kastl <mail@johannes-kastl.de> wrote:
>
> Hi Thorsten,
>
> On 08.04.24 08:58 Thorsten Kukuk wrote:
> > On Sun, Apr 7, 2024 at 4:24 PM Johannes Kastl <mail@johannes-kastl.de>
> > wrote:
>
> >> 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 people who
> > 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 packages
> > which suffer from this.
> > So: don't use %ghost entries if not absolutely necessary.
>
> OK.
>
> > 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.