[Pkg-cups-devel] Bug#549673: cups: constantly modify configuration files in /etc

Luca Capello luca at pca.it
Mon Oct 5 13:02:30 UTC 2009


Package: cups
Version: 1.4.1-4
Severity: minor

Hi there!

I manage my /etc with etckeeper, with the following options:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
VCS="git"

# Uncomment to avoid etckeeper committing existing changes
# to /etc automatically once per day.
AVOID_DAILY_AUTOCOMMITS=1

# Uncomment to avoid etckeeper committing existing changes to 
# /etc before installation. It will cancel the installation,
# so you can commit the changes by hand.
AVOID_COMMIT_BEFORE_INSTALL=1
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Since when I started to use etckeeper, I noticed that every time cupsd
starts it rewrites the configuration file:
=====
gismo:/etc# git diff
diff --git a/cups/printers.conf b/cups/printers.conf
index 3548437..ed91cf8 100644
--- a/cups/printers.conf
+++ b/cups/printers.conf
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.4.1
-# Written by cupsd on 2009-09-16 09:52
+# Written by cupsd on 2009-10-05 13:50
[...]
diff --git a/cups/printers.conf.O b/cups/printers.conf.O
index 9d86c62..3548437 100644
--- a/cups/printers.conf.O
+++ b/cups/printers.conf.O
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.4.0
-# Written by cupsd on 2009-09-09 10:10
+# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.4.1
+# Written by cupsd on 2009-09-16 09:52
[...]
gismo:/etc#
=====

This also happens once per day, usually around 0600 if my laptop is on.

The solution I adopted until now was a `git reset --hard HEAD` before
continuing with anything related to /etc (installing/removing packages
or editing files there), but I am now really tired of this situation.

Cups is the only program I am aware of with such behavior and I still
think this is a bug in cups: I do not see the reason why *without my
approval* it modifies configuration files.  If this is really needed,
why it does not keep a copy in /var/lib?  This seems to me the best
place, according to the FHS:

  http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARLIBVARIABLESTATEINFORMATION

Feel free to downgrade this bug to wishlist or tag it as wontfix, but
please do not close it.  I was surprised to not find any occurrence of
it in the Debian BTS, but I should admit I have searched on still opened
bug only.

Thx, bye,
Gismo / Luca

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.30-2-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages cups depends on:
ii  adduser                3.111             add and remove users and groups
ii  bc                     1.06.94-3.1       The GNU bc arbitrary precision cal
ii  cups-client            1.4.1-4           Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  cups-common            1.4.1-4           Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.27            Debian configuration management sy
ii  ghostscript            8.70~dfsg-2+b1    The GPL Ghostscript PostScript/PDF
ii  libavahi-client3       0.6.25-1          Avahi client library
ii  libavahi-common3       0.6.25-1          Avahi common library
ii  libc6                  2.9-27            GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcups2               1.4.1-4           Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  libcupscgi1            1.4.1-4           Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  libcupsdriver1         1.4.1-4           Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  libcupsimage2          1.4.1-4           Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  libcupsmime1           1.4.1-4           Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  libcupsppdc1           1.4.1-4           Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  libdbus-1-3            1.2.16-2          simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libgcc1                1:4.4.1-5         GCC support library
ii  libgnutls26            2.8.4-1           the GNU TLS library - runtime libr
ii  libgssapi-krb5-2       1.7dfsg~beta3-1   MIT Kerberos runtime libraries - k
ii  libijs-0.35            0.35-7            IJS raster image transport protoco
ii  libkrb5-3              1.7dfsg~beta3-1   MIT Kerberos runtime libraries
ii  libldap-2.4-2          2.4.17-2          OpenLDAP libraries
ii  libpam0g               1.1.0-4           Pluggable Authentication Modules l
ii  libpaper1              1.1.23+nmu1       library for handling paper charact
ii  libpoppler4            0.10.6-1          PDF rendering library
ii  libslp1                1.2.1-7.6         OpenSLP libraries
ii  libstdc++6             4.4.1-5           The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libusb-0.1-4           2:0.1.12-13       userspace USB programming library
ii  lsb-base               3.2-23            Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip
ii  perl-modules           5.10.1-5          Core Perl modules
ii  procps                 1:3.2.8-1.2       /proc file system utilities
ii  ssl-cert               1.0.23            simple debconf wrapper for OpenSSL
ii  ttf-freefont           20090104-4        Freefont Serif, Sans and Mono True
ii  xpdf-utils [poppler-ut 3.02-1.4+lenny1   Portable Document Format (PDF) sui
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-15 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages cups recommends:
pn  cups-driver-gutenprint        <none>     (no description available)
pn  foomatic-filters              <none>     (no description available)
pn  ghostscript-cups              <none>     (no description available)

Versions of packages cups suggests:
ii  cups-bsd                      1.4.1-4    Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
pn  cups-pdf                      <none>     (no description available)
pn  cups-ppdc                     <none>     (no description available)
pn  foomatic-db                   <none>     (no description available)
pn  foomatic-db-engine            <none>     (no description available)
pn  hplip                         <none>     (no description available)
pn  smbclient                     <none>     (no description available)
ii  udev                          146-3      /dev/ and hotplug management daemo
pn  xpdf-korean | xpdf-japanese | <none>     (no description available)

-- debconf information:
  cupsys/raw-print: true
  cupsys/backend: ipp, lpd, parallel, scsi, serial, socket, usb, snmp, dnssd
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