(debian-policy.info)Details of configuration

---

Next: Details of removal and/or configuration purging Prev: Details of unpack phase of installation or upgrade Up: Package maintainer scripts and installation procedure

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

6.7 Details of configuration
============================

When we configure a package (this happens with ‘dpkg --install’ and
‘dpkg --configure’), we first update any ‘conffile’s and then call:

     `postinst' configure `most-recently-configured-version'

No attempt is made to unwind after errors during configuration.  If the
configuration fails, the package is in a “Half-Configured” state, and an
error message is generated.

If there is no most recently configured version ‘dpkg’ will pass a null
argument.  (1)

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) Historical note: Truly ancient (pre-1997) versions of ‘dpkg’
passed ‘<unknown>’ (including the angle brackets) in this case.  Even
older ones did not pass a second argument at all, under any
circumstance.  Note that upgrades using such an old dpkg version are
unlikely to work for other reasons, even if this old argument behavior
is handled by your postinst script.