categories of files (was Re: Software installation opinions needed)

[Leslie Mikesell]

In article <9-26933 at xds13.ferranti.com> peter at ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes:

>> [when upgrading the system]. How do you tell which
>> pieces belong to which package, and in what order to reconstruct
>> things?  

>You run the package's remove script (built at install time, so it knows the
>configuration), remove it, and re-install after the upgrade.

I've tried that, and often the remove script would remove all traces of
the package, including the things I had spent a few months configuring
exactly the way I wanted.  Then there was one (must have had something
to do with AT&T starlan...) that offered to save the configuration
database but then the release notes for the upgrade said something like:
"Answer 'no' to the prompt 'Do you wish to restore the saved
configuration?'".  

>What, you don't supply a remove script? Shame...

Things have gotten better recently, but I still don't trust scripts that
offer to remove my files.  I just wish that there were standard places
for the set-up files with provisions for installed base copies, network
wide copies, local system copies and per-user copies.  It's one thing
for a guru to philosophically assert that there should be no arbitrary
restrictions on filenames or placement - it's something else to force
everyone who installs a unix machine to re-invent a reasonable layout.
If "installed" files lived in one place and "custom" files were elsewhere,
an install script could just plop all the standard files into place
and then offer to update any custom setup files it found if the old
ones don't work as-is.

Les Mikesell
  les at chinet.chi.il.us