[Bug 689069] Re: During upgrade both "keep" and "replace" can be destructive

[dino99]

This version is no more supported

** Changed in: update-manager (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Invalid

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Title:
  During upgrade both "keep" and "replace" can be destructive

Status in update-manager package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: update-manager

  When system configuration files change between releases, the user is
  offered a choice of "Keep" or "Replace". It is possible to view the
  differences between the existing and new files, but this may not be
  particularly informative depending on the nature and amount of
  changes. Further, there are possible situations where both actions are
  destructive: not accepting new changes may be break software if the
  format has changed (or fail to close a security problem), whilst not
  keeping existing changes may e.g. stop hardware working. The user
  should be given better advice at the very least, and additionally
  there should be more options for resolution:

  a) advise user that generally you should accept new changes, but if you have modified files for yourself you should make the changes again before rebooting
  b) advise the user of the presence of .dpkg-* files, link to more information on how to use them

  better still:

  c) offer option to manually resolve the situation (as per VCS)
  d) automatically diff the existing file against the initial version of the file for the old version, and either:
      i) automatically install the new version and then apply the patch
      ii) in the likely event that this is too difficult/troublesome, at least present the user with the differences from the *original* AND offer ability to include them in the new version automatically if the user confirms (in addition to c))

  If there was the possibility of marking certain files/sections of
  files as subject to format or critical (security/system-breaking)
  changes then almost all cases that didn't fit these criteria could be
  handled automatically. However, I guess this would involved a lot more
  work for package maintainers, and possibly parsing of the files.

  Hence, handling all of these situations automatically is likely to be
  very difficult. But the current situation is not informative for
  beginners, not flexible for more advanced users, and doesn't often
  even basic intelligence for common use cases. There is also the risk
  of neither of the current options working, as mentioned above. The
  current process could be improved enormously without advanced work.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
  Package: update-manager 1:0.134.11
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-26.48-generic 2.6.32.24+drm33.11
  Uname: Linux 2.6.32-26-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Sat Dec 11 21:57:33 2010
  PackageArchitecture: all
  ProcEnviron:
   LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
   LANG=en_GB.utf8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: update-manager

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