Installing and upgrading

For each conffile, i.conffile compares three things: the file on disk, the new default in the package, and the baseline - a copy of the default the package shipped last time, kept in /var/sadm/conffiles/pkginst/path.

•

No file and no baseline (first install): the default is installed.

•

The file equals the new default, or still equals the old baseline (you never edited it): the new default is installed, silently.

•

The file differs from both (you edited it, or something other than the package wrote it): your file is kept. The new default is written beside it as file.new, the file is listed in /var/sadm/conffiles/PENDING, and pkgadd prints

If the package's default has not changed since the last install, an edited file is simply kept, with no message and no new .new file.

•

The file is gone but its baseline exists (you removed it): the package puts its default back and says so. The package tools require every file a package owns to exist after the install, so a removed conffile cannot stay removed.

In every case the new default becomes the baseline.

What to do with a .new file

Compare the two, for example with diff(1):

Then either keep your file and delete the .new file, or move the .new file over yours (and carry your changes into it). The next install or upgrade of the package notices either choice: a file equal to the new default leaves PENDING and loses its stale .new. apkg lists the pending files after each transaction.

A plain pkgchk(1M) reports a conffile you replaced by hand until the package database is told about it, with installf -c conffile pkginst path e and then installf -f pkginst; pkgchk -n skips editable files and is always the clean post-install check.

Removing

r.conffile removes a conffile you never edited, together with its baseline. A file you edited is kept, with its baseline, and pkgrm says so; it then belongs to no package. A conffile that another package also owns (amix-base takes over some of core's files) is left to that package whatever its contents; only the baseline goes, and pkgrm says so. Any .new file and its PENDING line are removed in both cases. Installing the package again finds the kept file and its baseline, and the rules above apply.

Removing a package therefore deletes every conffile of it you never edited. A package the system cannot boot without carries APKG_ESSENTIAL=yes in its pkginfo, and apkg(1) refuses to remove it; the stock pkgrm does not look at the mark.