Re: [webmin-l] Virtualmin Deinstall/Install losing configuration

[Roger B.A. K. <ro...@qu...>]

Joe Cooper wrote:

> On a package manager equipped system (i.e. RPM), this decision is up 
> to the package manager.  That's not the whole story for Webmin, 
> though. Webmins RPM is a bit different than a standard RPM because it 
> has to run on many many many platforms and work correctly on all of 
> them....It makes a lot of decisions at install (and uninstall) time 
> that most packages don't make.  But one thing it (or any other RPM) 
> can't do is ask questions.  RPM has a standing law that a package 
> install and uninstall must be fully scriptable...and asking a question 
> kills that capability.


Then you always preserve data on deinstall, and tell the user that data 
was kept and can be removed manually by <...>.

> So, in short, there's no way to ask if the user intends to delete 
> configuration files in an RPM uninstall.  There is probably a way to 
> make it not delete configuration files, though I'm not sure off-hand 
> what it is.  Of course, if that had happened you would have 
> reinstalled only to find you had the same configuration problem you 
> had before and then you might be complaining because uninstalling 
> didn't actually uninstall everything!  ;-)


Um, since the problem was specifically that the previous production 
version did not properly set Webmin to restart on every boot, perhaps a 
simple fix for that problem should have been posted instead of "helpful" 
instructions to deinstall and reinstall.


> There are a number of very good webmail packages available now (many 
> of which weren't so good when Usermin first came along), and we'll 
> likely support some of them in some kind of automated way for folks 
> who want an alternative, but none of them will ever look/feel/behave 
> in the same way as Webmin and Virtualmin and thus will always 
> introduce a new level of complexity to the overall system that doesn't 
> need to be there.


Yes, but 99% of the users of email services would never see any other 
part of Webmin/Virtualmin -- only their web admins would.

> Anyway, Usermin webmail is not a second-string part of the 
> system...It's going to be getting some pretty big improvements in the 
> next few weeks.



I still don't see what it has to do with the "min" part of the name.