[Adduser-devel] Bug#551929: Bug#551929: deluser: creates backup of user's files when not requested

[Frans Pop]

On Friday 18 December 2009, Stephen Gran wrote:
> Both of these requests are completely reasonable, but conflict, so I
> think probably what I'll do is go for option b, and have deluser fail
> if --backup-to is set but --backup isn't.  Given that we ship a default
> of '.', that should at least be the pronciple of least surprise.
>
> Thoughts?  Objections?  If not, I'll commit something tomorrow.

It is obviously completely unacceptable to ignore the BACKUP = 0 setting 
from the config file.

Given that wanting to set a different default location for backups in the 
config file without wanting to enable backups by default seems reasonable, 
option b looks like the more reasonable solution to me.

For reference, option b) was:
   --backup-to should loudly refuse to act without --backup


However, *if* the config file is read before parsing options, there is 
another solution: make --backup-to imply --backup, but *only* if passed on 
the command line.

This may require slightly more complex coding, but should be possible to 
implement.

Cheers,
FJP