Bug#1085130: procps: /etc/sysctl.conf is still listed as a conffile

[Vincent Lefevre]

Package: procps
Version: 2:4.0.4-6
Severity: important

/etc/sysctl.conf is still listed as a conffile, and this can break
other tools.

For instance, this confuses "reportbug", which assumes that the file
is expected to be there, giving a false error, as you can see below.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: trixie/sid
APT prefers unstable-debug
APT policy: (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable-debug'), (500, 'proposed-updates-debug'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.7.12-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_WARN
Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages procps depends on:
ii init-system-helpers 1.67
ii libc6 2.40-3
ii libncursesw6 6.5-2
ii libproc2-0 2:4.0.4-6
ii libsystemd0 256.7-1
ii libtinfo6 6.5-2

Versions of packages procps recommends:
ii linux-sysctl-defaults 4.10.1
ii psmisc 23.7-1

procps suggests no packages.

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/sysctl.conf [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/sysctl.conf'

-- no debconf information

[Craig Small]

Post by Vincent Lefevre
/etc/sysctl.conf is still listed as a conffile, and this can break
other tools.

It seems remove-on-upgrade in the conffiles didn't do what I wanted.
I've added a rm_conffile to the mainscript which seems to have removed it.

- Craig

[Vincent Lefevre]

Control: reopen -1
Control: found -1 2:4.0.4-7

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512
Format: 1.8
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:35:44 +1100
Source: procps
Architecture: source
Version: 2:4.0.4-7
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Closes: 1079806 1085130 1088203
procps (2:4.0.4-7) unstable; urgency=medium
.

[...]

[ Craig Small ]
* Updated watch file for GitLab api Closes: #1079806
* Add rm_conffile for /etc/sysctl.conf Closes: #1085130

[...]

With 2:4.0.4-6, I had:

Conffiles:
/etc/sysctl.conf 72b7c827a9636cda7b3b371091ff2dce remove-on-upgrade
[...]

With 2:4.0.4-7, it is still listed, but now appears as

Conffiles:
/etc/sysctl.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade
[...]

Strange.

Note: /etc/sysctl.conf is not present on my machine.

[Craig Small]

Post by Vincent Lefevre
With 2:4.0.4-7, it is still listed, but now appears as
/etc/sysctl.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade

It's not very clear from the documentation, but that looks correct.
The fact that "dpkg -s procps", for example, shows this line is not a bug.

The bug was certain programs would complain about the missing file.
I note the example given for reportbug is fixed and it no longer complains.

So unless there is another program that has a problem with the file then
this bug
is fixed. It's not the only packages with files in this state:

$ dpkg -s | grep 'newconffile remove-on-upgrade'
/etc/gnome/defaults.list newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.freedesktop.ModemManager1.conf newconffile
remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.freedesktop.PackageKit.conf newconffile
remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/pkg-config-hook-config newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/pkgconf-hook-config newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/postfix/postfix-script newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/postfix/post-install newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/sysctl.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.freedesktop.realmd.conf newconffile
remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.rpm.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/wpa_supplicant.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade

- Craig

[Vincent Lefevre]

Post by Craig Small

Post by Vincent Lefevre
With 2:4.0.4-7, it is still listed, but now appears as
/etc/sysctl.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade

It's not very clear from the documentation, but that looks correct.

I don't see much documentation (nothing in the dpkg(1) man page
about that). And the deb-conffiles(5) man page says:

There is currently only one flag supported, remove-on-upgrade, to mark
that a conffile needs to be removed on the next upgrade (since dpkg
1.20.6).

but since the conffile has *already* been removed, this looks
incorrect. And I couldn't find any documentation of "newconffile".

Post by Craig Small
The fact that "dpkg -s procps", for example, shows this line is not a bug.
The bug was certain programs would complain about the missing file.
I note the example given for reportbug is fixed and it no longer complains.

Indeed, I could check that reportbug 13.0.1 no longer complains
(there was a fix/workaround in reportbug 13.0.2 about missing
conffiles, so that testing 13.0.1, which was the current version
when I reported the bug, was important).

This is probably OK for programs. But for the end user, this is
confusing.

Post by Craig Small
So unless there is another program that has a problem with the file then
this bug
$ dpkg -s | grep 'newconffile remove-on-upgrade'
/etc/gnome/defaults.list newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.freedesktop.ModemManager1.conf newconffile
remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.freedesktop.PackageKit.conf newconffile
remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/pkg-config-hook-config newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/pkgconf-hook-config newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/postfix/postfix-script newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/postfix/post-install newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/sysctl.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.freedesktop.realmd.conf newconffile
remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.rpm.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade
/etc/dbus-1/system.d/wpa_supplicant.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade

So perhaps the procps part is fixed in procps/2:4.0.4-7, but there
is still an issue on the dpkg side, at least missing documentation.