Bug#380233: [pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#380233: package transition leaves a mess of old ntp-server and ntp-simple stuff, including dangerous purge possibilities

[Kurt Roeckx]

On Sun, Jul 30, 2006 at 10:56:11PM +0100, Max Bowsher wrote:
> Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> > The init script might be a bit of an issue because you might have two 
> > init scripts trying to start the same program, but there are interlocks 
> > that should prevent that.
> 
> The post-upgrade state is exactly that - two init scripts for the same
> program, both active. Even if there are interlocks, it is still messy.

I think the only thing we can do about that is using something
like "update-rc.d -f ntp-server remove" in the postinst.  And I'm
not really sure that's a good idea.

> >> Additionally, if an incautious sysadmin was to purge the old
> >> packages, then the old ntp-simple postinst script will cause serious
> >> damage to the existing ntp installation, in particular, deleting the
> >> 'ntp' user, as well as deleting the /var/lib/ntp/ and
> >> /var/log/ntpstats/ directories.
> > 
> > My answer to that is that you shouldn't randomly purge packages at 
> > random times.
> 
> What then, _is_ the proper way to purge packages? I haven't found any
> way to preview the results of a purge without peeking inside
> /var/lib/dpkg/info/ .
> 
> > We could, however, try to document a sequence of steps 
> > to clean up your system after an upgrade.  Basically, if you restart 
> > ntp after you purge ntp-server, you should be fine.
> > 
> > The ntp-simple and ntp-refclock packages can be safely removed at any 
> > time I believe.
> 
> No, not at all. As I said, the ntp-simple postinst deletes the 'ntp'
> user account during purge, which the new ntp packages still use.

Note that the /etc/init.d/ntp script creates those again.


Kurt