Hi,

Is there any way to specify by directive/modifier in %files section of a RPM spec file, that a file(server.ini) should be packaged in the RPM, and should be placed/copied when installing that RPM.

But it should not be removed when uninstalling/erasing the RPM package.

Like an user can save his preferences in the ini file. And I do not want to remove that file while erasing the package, so that when the user reinstalls the software he will have the previous ini settings available.

Sabyasachi.

Here's some reasons why this is a bad idea:

It breaks the concept of RPM
Any file (well, almost any) thats put on the system by an RPM can be traced back to it's originating package for identification and verification purposes. Leaving files breaks that since they don't belong to any package anymore.


It breaks the concept of RPM (II)
Remove means "remove unconditionally", not "remove but leave stuff in case you need it in a gazillion years, maybe". Leaving files that don't belong to any package are of no use to the system, especially if they're named something totally non-descriptive like "server.ini" (what server?). If they want to keep it they should make backups.


It breaks the concept of how personalised ini files should work
The general idea is that global ini files reside in any etc/* dirs and that users use their ~/.%{appname}.ini for personalising. If %{appname} doesn't look for ~/.%{appname}.ini then maybe it should. If it can't or shouldn't then that's still no reason to keep etc/%{appname}.ini.

And what happens on re-install if the RPM finds etc/%{appname}.ini is there? Should it forcefully overwrite? Leave it? (AFAIK %{config}(noreplace) only works for updating).


If you still want to go ahead I guess you could use "preun":