[Rpm-maint] [rpm-software-management/rpm] RFE: option for initial-only content in files (#152)

[Panu Matilainen]

Originally filed in the old rpm.org Trac instance by ovasik for the use-case of files like /etc/passwd:

> Maybe useful only for combination with %config(noreplace), not sure at the moment. There are several files e.g. Fedora's /etc/passwd marked %config(noreplace) where it doesn't make sense to .rpmnew file. It is useless and could confuse users (and even cause troubles if used as replacement for /etc/passwd by unexperienced admin. Therefore I would like to not create .rpmnew file, to not replace old /etc/passwd file but to INSTALL /etc/passwd file when installing rpm's.
>
> There is afaik no option for this case available at the moment. When I mark the file %ghost, it will be not installed - as it will be not part of .rpm file - which is not good in this case. Deleting .rpmnew file in %post could make paranoic user scared - as rpm update reported .rpmnew file and file is missing. If you have other proposal, feel free to post it here.
>
> Could be useful for some catalog files - which have to be installed once, but there is no need to update them afterwards - even if the file content in new release changed. I do not expect wide usage, but it would be an option for such border cases. 

Original suggestion was on %config(nowarn), dmach suggested other, far better names:
- installonly
- noupdate
- norpmnew

IMO the use-case is very real and worth implementing, it's just the minor details that need sorting out. Such as:
- The name - %config(nowarn) is absolutely terrible, "noupdate" seems like a nice generic term that describes the functionality well. But other ideas welcome too, something that describes the class of such files (think of %config, %doc etc) would be fine too.
- Should this be limited to %config files? My gut feeling says no - for example /etc/passwd is not a %config file in the usual sense, and I seem to have a dim recollection of various other use-cases for this that were not really config files.
- This would seem to be in relatively close relation to %ghost, because after such a file becomes just like a %ghost, but it certainly is not a %ghost file since we need to carry it in payload. Is there something else in this direction?

What else?

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