Merge ~ahasenack/ubuntu/+source/base-files:groovy-motd-news-config-split into ubuntu/+source/base-files:ubuntu/devel

[Andreas Hasenack]

Another attempt at this motd-news-config split, after vorlon's feedback to make motd-news-config a base-files package instead of a new source.

PPA with test builds (no ~ppaN suffix because of the precise breaks/replaces I have all over the place): https://launchpad.net/~ahasenack/+archive/ubuntu/zomg-2/

The overall plan is to have motd-news only enabled on server systems after this upgrade. What it does:
- the /etc/default/motd-news config file is moved from base-files to motd-news-config, a new binary package built from base-files. If it has modifications, they are preserved via a postinst snippet
- ubuntu-server has a dependency on motd-news-config
- new base-files breaks old ubuntu-server, forcing an upgrade of ubuntu-server if it is installed

The versions used in these breaks/replaces have to be very precise for this to work, so between now and whenever these are uploaded, I'll check again.

For now in groovy we have:
base-files 11ubuntu10
ubuntu-meta 1.452

Therefore:
ubuntu-server 1.453:
Depends: motd-news-config

base-files 11ubuntu11:
Breaks/Replaces: ubuntu-server (<< 1.453)
rm_conffile /etc/default/motd-news 11ubuntu11~ base-files

motd-news-config 11ubuntu11:
Breaks/Replaces: base-files (<< 11ubuntu11)

For the PPA ubuntu-meta package, I committed directly to src:ubuntu-meta instead of running its ./update script, as I couldn't convince that script to use a branch of mine instead of the official ubuntu seeds repository. The seeds change is in https://code.launchpad.net/~ahasenack/ubuntu-seeds/+git/ubuntu-seeds/+merge/388403 and ready to land.

Here are the tests I've been running:
a) base-files installed, ubuntu-server installed, unmodified /e/d/motd-news
apt install base-files
- upgrades ubuntu-server
- installs motd-news-config
- /e/d/motd-news remains, motd-news remains enabled

b) base-files installed, ubuntu-server installed, modified /e/d/motd-news
apt install base-files
- upgrades ubuntu-server
- installs motd-news-config
- /e/d/motd-news remains with the original modification

c) base-files installed, ubuntu-server not installed, unmodified /e/d/motd-news
apt install base-files
- upgrades base-files
- removes /e/d/motd-news
- motd-news is disabled

d) base-files installed, ubuntu-server not installed, modified /e/d/motd-news
apt install base-files
- upgrades base-files
- /e/d/motd-news gets renamed to backup
- motd-news is disabled

e) removing motd-news-config will also remove ubuntu-server (since it's a depends, and not a recommends)

f) upgrading just ubuntu-server should pull motd-news-config in, and force-upgrade base-files

g) Removing motd-news-server leaves /e/d/motd-news around; purging motd-news-server removes the /e/d/motd-news config file

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Great testing as always.
I was not looking at re-running your tests, instead I wondered "what could happen" and a less surgical blunt user came to mind that just deleted /etc/default/motd-news which at first achieves the same thing (motd news is off)

I tested that on ubuntu-server and without ubuntu-server.

Without Ubuntu-server it is ok, the file does not come back and stays disabled.

But with Ubuntu-server installed there is nothing rm_conffile of base-files does.
Therefore no artifact is left, and due to that the default file is placed (again) and thereby re-enabling the service :-/

# Working (default)

root@g2:~# bash -x /etc/update-motd.d/50-motd-news
+ '[' -r /etc/default/motd-news ']'
+ . /etc/default/motd-news
++ ENABLED=1
++ URLS=https://motd.ubuntu.com
++ WAIT=5
+ '[' 1 = 1 ']'
+ '[' -n https://motd.ubuntu.com ']'
+ '[' -n 5 ']'
+ '[' -n '' ']'
+ CACHE=/var/cache/motd-news
+ '[' '' = --force ']'
+ '[' '' '!=' 1 ']'
+ '[' -r /var/cache/motd-news ']'
++ id -u
+ '[' 0 -eq 0 ']'
+ :
+ exit 0

# Remove file (disabled)

root@g2:~# rm /etc/default/motd-news
root@g2:~# bash -x /etc/update-motd.d/50-motd-news
+ '[' -r /etc/default/motd-news ']'
+ '[' '' = 1 ']'
+ exit 0

# Upgrade re-enables

root@g2:~# add-apt-repository ppa:ahasenack/zomg-2

 More info: https://launchpad.net/~ahasenack/+archive/ubuntu/zomg-2
Press [ENTER] to continue or Ctrl-c to cancel adding it.

Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy-backports InRelease
Get:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/zomg-2/ubuntu groovy InRelease [17.5 kB]
Hit:5 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu groovy-security InRelease
Get:6 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/zomg-2/ubuntu groovy/main amd64 Packages [3772 B]
Get:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/zomg-2/ubuntu groovy/main Translation-en [1056 B]
Fetched 22.3 kB in 1s (27.7 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
root@g2:~#
root@g2:~#
root@g2:~# apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libfreetype6
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  motd-news-config
The following packages will be upgraded:
  base-files ubuntu-minimal ubuntu-server ubuntu-standard
4 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 262 kB of archives.
After this operation, 45.1 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/zomg-2/ubuntu groovy/main amd64 ubuntu-server amd64 1.453 [46.8 kB]
Get:2 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/zomg-2/ubuntu groovy/main amd64 base-files amd64 11ubuntu11 [88.6 kB]
Get:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/zomg-2/ubuntu groovy/main amd64 motd-news-config all 11ubuntu11 [32.5 kB]
Get:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ahasenack/zomg-2/ubuntu groovy/main amd64 ubuntu-minimal amd64 1.453 [46.9 ...

review: Needs Information

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

> What do you think, does this require a bit more maintscript magic to be covered as well?

Heh, the config file is coming back because now it belongs to another package, which was never installed before (motd-news-config).

Do you have any idea what this maintscript magic would look like?

Is there a sane way motd-news-config could tell that the file was supposed to be there, but isn't? And then what would it do, place the new one in there with ENABLED set to 0?

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

How to do it:

What to do:
I wondered about that myself - there will be no perfect answer - but I think after placing the default file on install AND detecting this case of a formerly removed config-file the following should do it.

motd-news-config.postinst:
if [ -e /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved ]; then
    sed -e 's/ENABLED=1/#Config file was removed for pkg:base-files - do not re-enable\nENABLED=0/' /etc/default/motd-news
    rm /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved
fi

You'd need to check if that orders right to have motd-news.postinst (the one of the new version) executed before motd-news-config.postinst - if it does then before the #DEBHELPER# section something like.

base-files.postinst:
# user removed the full file, mark that to keep service disabled on conffile take over
if [ -e /etc/default/motd-news ]; then
    touch /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved
fi

The above is untested, but this is what I'd have thought might help to avoid this issue.
Did you get any other feedback if/how to handle that situation?

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

what I meant for ordering: The new base-files.postinst will be called with "configure $oldver" before the install fully completes - just if this happens before moted-news.config.postinst is the question that I'm unsure about and worth a test.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

> Did you get any other feedback if/how to handle that situation?

xnox said "it's hard", steve didn't comment yet. Will ping again today.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

> base-files.postinst:
> # user removed the full file, mark that to keep service disabled on conffile take over
> if [ -e /etc/default/motd-news ]; then
> touch /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved
> fi

I'm assuming you meant "! -e" in the check above, i.e.:
- before rm_conffile kicks in (#DEBHELPER#)
- if /e/d/motd-news isn't there, then it's because the user removed it

I have this in debian/postinst.in:
(...)
# special case of having /etc/default/motd-news removed by hand
# signal the motd-news-config package that this happened, so that
# it does not put back the file with default contents which would
# re-enable motd-news
motd_config="/etc/default/motd-news"
ls -la "$motd_config" || :
if [ ! -e /etc/default/motd-news ]; then
  touch /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved
fi

#DEBHELPER#

The "ls -la" is a debug statement.

I start with only base-files 11ubuntu10 installed (the current groovy version), and an unmodified /etc/default/motd-news file. Here is dpkg -i of the new base-files and new motd-news-config:

$ sudo dpkg -i ../*.deb 2>&1 | tee ../dpkg-i.log
(Reading database ... 36078 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../base-files_11ubuntu11_amd64.deb ...
Warning: Stopping motd-news.service, but it can still be activated by:
  motd-news.timer
Unpacking base-files (11ubuntu11) over (11ubuntu10) ...
Selecting previously unselected package motd-news-config.
Preparing to unpack .../motd-news-config_11ubuntu11_all.deb ...
Unpacking motd-news-config (11ubuntu11) ...
Setting up base-files (11ubuntu11) ...
+ [ ! -e /etc/dpkg/origins/default ]
+ [ configure = configure ]
+ [ 11ubuntu10 = ]
+ [ ! -d /var/lib/dpkg ]
+ [ ! -f /var/lib/dpkg/status ]
+ [ ! -f /usr/info/dir ]
+ [ ! -f /usr/share/info/dir ]
+ [ configure = configure ]
+ [ 11ubuntu10 != ]
+ rm -f /var/lib/update-notifier/release-upgrade-available
+ [ -x /usr/lib/update-manager/check-new-release ]
+ update_to_current_default profile /etc/profile
+ [ -f /etc/profile ]
+ md5sum /etc/profile
+ cut -f 1 -d
+ md5=9d5ee34149287021622dd9e21c17ec26
+ grep -q 9d5ee34149287021622dd9e21c17ec26 /usr/share/base-files/profile.md5sums
+ cmp -s /usr/share/base-files/profile /etc/profile
+ update_to_current_default dot.profile /root/.profile
+ [ -f /root/.profile ]
+ md5sum /root/.profile
+ cut -f 1 -d
+ md5=d68ce7c7d7d2bb7d48aeb2f137b828e4
+ grep -q d68ce7c7d7d2bb7d48aeb2f137b828e4 /usr/share/base-files/dot.profile.md5sums
+ dpkg --compare-versions 11ubuntu10 lt-nl 7.7
+ motd_config=/etc/default/motd-news
+ ls -la /etc/default/motd-news
ls: cannot access '/etc/default/motd-news': No such file or directory
+ :
+ [ ! -e /etc/default/motd-news ]
+ touch /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved
+ [ configure = configure ]
+ deb-systemd-helper unmask motd-news.timer
+ deb-systemd-helper --quiet was-enabled motd-news.timer
+ deb-systemd-helper enable motd-news.timer
+ [ configure = configure ]
+ [ -d /run/systemd/system ]
+ systemctl --system daemon-reload
+ deb-systemd-invoke start motd-news.timer
+ [ configure = configure ]
+ [ -d /run/systemd/system ]
+ systemctl --system daemon-reload
+ deb-systemd-invoke start motd-news.service
motd-news.service is a disabled or a static uni...

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Ok, handling those two cases as well now (.dpkg-remove and .dpkg-bak), pushed. I'll have to create a new ppa (guess: zomg-3), as I don't want to complicate testing by using ~ppaN suffixes, given all the exact breaks/replaces I have in these packages.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Had a typo in postinst, preparing zomg-4...

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

I added these two extra tests:
h) base-files installed, ubuntu-server installed, removed /e/d/motd-news
- apt install base-files
- upgrades base-files, upgrades ubuntu-server, installs motd-news-config
- /e/d/motd-news is installed with ENABLED=0

i) base-files installed, ubuntu-server NOT installed, removed e/d/motd-news
- apt install base-files
- base-files is upgraded
- no /e/d/motd-news is installed, motd-news remains disabled

Packages from zomg-4 passed all, but (i) left a lingering /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved. Investigating.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Ok, it's because the removal is done in motd-news-config's postinst, but since there was no motd-news-config package installed (because there was no ubuntu-server installed before), nothing removed the .wasremoved file :/

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Should I add a check to see if ubuntu-server is installed before touching that .wasremoved file? Like dpkg -s ubuntu-server, and only if it's installed and the other conditions match, create the .wasremoved file? This is getting complicated...

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Ok, Steve came back and said:
<vorlon> ahasenack: hi, managing to reply before you drop off IRC for the day; I think the corner case in question is acceptable to not address, but needs to be called out in the SRU
<vorlon> (as "regression potential")

I then mentioned the attempt above at fixing this corner case, and he analyzed the changes, and said:
<vorlon> ahasenack: yeah, so I'm vaguely inclined to leave this corner case unfixed but called out in the SRU, rather than add additional complicated maintscript handling; but I wouldn't block the SRU if you do add the maintscript stuff

I fear that this complicated handling in maintainerscripts might introduce more bugs. Let's try without it, and call out the corner case you found in the bug?

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

I pushed 6aaff4e6f2930bb3351f6adc72e3bd46b0c8ca78 for the extra ubuntu-devel presence check, to try to fix the /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved leftover, but I'm not very fond of calling dpkg -l inside a maintainer script, and am ready to drop that.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

While it isn't common dpkg -l should be safe as it is "essential: Yes".
The line you added isn't super complex and should get the issue of the lingering file solved.

The only thing I'm wondering is - would at this stage the first entry of dpkg -l being "Desired state" already be "i" for motd-news-config itself.

If it isn't then keep things as-is and at least I'm +1 on it.
But if it is "i" then checking directly for motd-news-config ready more logically and would cover any awkward dependency messing that prevents it from being installed despite ubuntu-server being present (none come to mind right now, but you know to be on the safe side).

review: Approve

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

To be clear - (if you prefer that) I'd also be ok to leave "6aaff4e6" out and list it in regression risk. But I see no big risk in keeping "6aaff4e6" either.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

I feel like walking a fine line and risking introducing worse regressions than the ones I'm trying to handle :)

About dpkg -l, I've seen at least two ways to check if a package is installed. In postfix[1], we have:
nis_status=$(dpkg -l nis 2>/dev/null | sed -n '$p')
if [ "X$nis_status" != "X${nis_status#i}" ] && [ -x /usr/bin/ypcat ] &&
 /usr/bin/ypcat mail.aliases >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     alias_maps="hash:/etc/aliases, nis:mail.aliases"

In openssl[2], dpkg -s is used:

dpkg -s <list-of-packages-space-separated> 2> /dev/null | egrep '^Package:|^Status:' | awk '{if ($1 ~ /^Package:/) { package=$2 } else if ($0 ~ /^Status: .* installed$/) { print package }}')

While testing the "dpkg -l ubuntu-server" idea, I was at first grepping for ^ii, but turns out ubuntu-server is in a iU state (installed, unpacked), so I switched to ^i. I haven't checked the motd-news-config state yet.

The other thing that bothers me in this fine line I'm walking is that this latest testing was on groovy, but I have to do this all the way back to xenial, and in xenial debhelper isn't even used.

1. https://git.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/postfix/tree/debian/postfix.postinst#n321
2. https://git.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssl/tree/debian/libssl1.1.postinst#n83

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

I filled in the SRU template in the base-files bug, and slightly changed the wording we add to /e/d/motd-news when the config file isn't there during the upgrade. I also added an extra check for the presence of the file before sedding it, just to be safe.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Am going to test this one last time in zomg-5

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Repeated the groovy tests with the zomg-5 ppa, all worked as expected from (a) to (i), where in (i) the /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved zero-sized file remains.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Tagging and uploading de0f896184fa1b0569ccb57207748e7a24fc6b85

$ git push pkg upload/11ubuntu11
Enumerating objects: 45, done.
Counting objects: 100% (45/45), done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (38/38), done.
Writing objects: 100% (39/39), 5.97 KiB | 381.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 39 (delta 26), reused 0 (delta 0)
To ssh://git.launchpad.net/~usd-import-team/ubuntu/+source/base-files
 * [new tag] upload/11ubuntu11 -> upload/11ubuntu11

$ dput ubuntu ../base-files_11ubuntu11_source.changes
Checking signature on .changes
gpg: ../base-files_11ubuntu11_source.changes: Valid signature from AC983EB5BF6BCBA9
Checking signature on .dsc
gpg: ../base-files_11ubuntu11.dsc: Valid signature from AC983EB5BF6BCBA9
Uploading to ubuntu (via ftp to upload.ubuntu.com):
  Uploading base-files_11ubuntu11.dsc: done.
  Uploading base-files_11ubuntu11.tar.xz: done.
  Uploading base-files_11ubuntu11_source.buildinfo: done.
  Uploading base-files_11ubuntu11_source.changes: done.
Successfully uploaded packages.

diff --git a/debian/base-files.maintscript b/debian/base-files.maintscript
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9972f51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/base-files.maintscript
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+rm_conffile /etc/default/motd-news 11ubuntu11~ base-files
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index c72b59f..6d9813e 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,26 @@
+base-files (11ubuntu11) groovy; urgency=medium
+
+  * Move the /etc/default/motd-news conffile to the motd-news-config
+    package (LP: #1888575):
+    - d/base-files.maintscript: remove /etc/default/motd-news config file
+      on upgrade
+    - d/control: break on ubuntu-server << 1.453 to force an upgrade if
+      it is installed, which will pull motd-news-config and the conffile
+      back in
+    - d/motd-news-config.postinst:
+      + handle the upgrade case where the motd-news config file was
+        changed while it belonged to base-files
+      + disable motd-news if the config file was removed by hand before
+        the upgrade
+    - d/postinst.in: signal the motd-news-config package if the
+      motd-news config file was removed manually before the upgrade
+    - d/control: new motd-news-config package, carrying the
+      configuration file for the /etc/update-motd.d/50-motd-news script.
+    - d/rules, d/motd-news-config.install: /e/d/motd-news is in the
+      motd-news-config package now
+
+ -- Andreas Hasenack <[e-mail]>  Mon, 10 Aug 2020 21:02:37 +0000
+
 base-files (11ubuntu10) groovy; urgency=medium
 
   * motd/50-motd-news: use the actual wget version variable in the
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index c90938a..d6b9138 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}, libcrypt1 (>= 1:4.4.10-10ubuntu3)
 Essential: yes
 Priority: required
 Replaces: base, miscutils, dpkg (<= 1.15.0)
-Breaks: debian-security-support (<< 2019.04.25), initscripts (<< 2.88dsf-13.3), sendfile (<< 2.1b.20080616-5.2~)
+Breaks: debian-security-support (<< 2019.04.25), initscripts (<< 2.88dsf-13.3), sendfile (<< 2.1b.20080616-5.2~),
+ ubuntu-server (<< 1.453)
 Multi-Arch: foreign
 Description: Debian base system miscellaneous files
  This package contains the basic filesystem hierarchy of a Debian system, and
@@ -28,3 +29,14 @@ Section: debian-installer
 Architecture: all
 Priority: extra
 Description: LSB release information
+
+Package: motd-news-config
+Architecture: all
+Breaks: base-files (<< 11ubuntu11)
+Replaces: base-files (<< 11ubuntu11)
+Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}
+Description: Configuration for motd-news shipped in base-files
+ This package contains the configuration read by the motd-news script
+ shipped in the base-files package.
+ .
+ Install this package if you want motd-news to be enabled.
diff --git a/debian/motd-news-config.install b/debian/motd-news-config.install
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..876b3b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/motd-news-config.install
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+debian/motd-news etc/default
diff --git a/debian/motd-news-config.postinst b/debian/motd-news-config.postinst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a73427f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/motd-news-config.postinst
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# postinst script for motd-news-config
+#
+# see: dh_installdeb(1)
+
+set -e
+
+# summary of how this script can be called:
+#        * <postinst> `configure' <most-recently-configured-version>
+#        * <old-postinst> `abort-upgrade' <new version>
+#        * <conflictor's-postinst> `abort-remove' `in-favour' <package>
+#          <new-version>
+#        * <postinst> `abort-remove'
+#        * <deconfigured's-postinst> `abort-deconfigure' `in-favour'
+#          <failed-install-package> <version> `removing'
+#          <conflicting-package> <version>
+# for details, see https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ or
+# the debian-policy package
+
+
+case "$1" in
+    configure)
+      # only run on new installs, $2 will be empty then
+      if [ -z "$2" ]; then
+          # /e/d/motd-news was moved from pkg:base-files to this package.
+          # base-files runs rm_conffile which, if it was modified, leaves
+          # /e/d/motd-news.dpkg-bak around. We want to preserve that *changed*
+          # config file in this migration, and this is something that
+          # rm_conffile is not handling.  In that case, let's put the backup
+          # file back in place
+          if [ -e /etc/default/motd-news.dpkg-bak ]; then
+              mv /etc/default/motd-news.dpkg-bak /etc/default/motd-news
+          fi
+          if [ -e /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved ] && [ -e /etc/default/motd-news ]; then
+              sed -i -e 's/^ENABLED=1/# Changed by motd-news-config.postinst:\n# config file was manually removed - disable the service\nENABLED=0/' /etc/default/motd-news
+              rm /etc/default/motd-news.wasremoved
+          fi
+      fi
+    ;;
+
+    abort-upgrade|abort-remove|abort-deconfigure)
+    ;;
+
+    *)
+        echo "postinst called with unknown argument \`$1'" >&2
+        exit 1
+    ;;
+esac
+
+# dh_installdeb will replace this with shell code automatically
+# generated by other debhelper scripts.
+
+#DEBHELPER#
+
+exit 0
diff --git a/debian/postinst.in b/debian/postinst.in
index 69435e3..c347a62 100644
--- a/debian/postinst.in
+++ b/debian/postinst.in
@@ -125,4 +125,17 @@ if [ "$1" = "configure" ] && [ "$2" != "" ]; then
   fi
 fi
 
+# special case of having /etc/default/motd-news removed by hand
+# signal the motd-news-config package that this happened, so that
+# it does not put back the file with default contents which would
+# re-enable motd-news
+motd_news_config="/etc/default/motd-news"
+if [ ! -e ${motd_news_config} ]; then
+  if [ ! -e ${motd_news_config}.dpkg-remove ]; then
+    if [ ! -e ${motd_news_config}.dpkg-backup ]; then
+      touch ${motd_news_config}.wasremoved
+    fi
+  fi
+fi
+
 #DEBHELPER#
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 9f0f164..4340bf7 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ override_dh_auto_build: locale-check
 override_dh_auto_install:
 	install -p -m 644 etc/*      $(DESTDIR)/etc
 	install -p -m 755 motd/*     $(DESTDIR)/etc/update-motd.d
-	install -p -m 644 debian/motd-news $(DESTDIR)/etc/default
 	install -p -m 644 debian/motd-news.service $(DESTDIR)/lib/systemd/system/
 	install -p -m 644 debian/motd-news.timer $(DESTDIR)/lib/systemd/system/
 	install -p -m 644 licenses/* $(DESTDIR)/usr/share/common-licenses