On 07/18/2013 06:11 PM, Matthew Miller wrote:
On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 02:19:30PM +0200, Lennart Poettering wrote:
So, you suggest using "Requires: /var/log/messages" and "Provides: /var/log/messages" as indication for this, and the %ghost /var/log/messages in the packages in question? Sounds good to me! Matthew?
My main concern with this is that it's a lie. That file only exists because of the default configuration. In many cases, rsyslog will be configured to either write different files, or most likely, to write no local files at all as all data is forwarded. And, as discussed in another subthread, I expect this last configuration to be more and more common. So, not just a lie, but a lie which may actually make it harder to use rsyslog in ways other than the default.
So... /var/log/messages is not guaranteed to be there even now, because it depends on rsyslog configuration. So any packages which cannot handle missing /var/log/messages are broken already in a non-default (but probably not all that uncommon) config, and nobody is crying out about that.
This whole logfile provides/requires thing seems mostly like a solution in search of a problem to me.
- Panu -