On Tue, 15 Jan 2008, Tom Lane wrote:
> I think on most systems you'd have to explicitly tweak the /tmp-cleaning
> script to know not to zap such a link. Given that such a local
> customization would probably disappear in your next system update, the
> security gain might be fleeting.
Right, on the RedHat box I have handy you'd have to edit
/etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch and add "-x s.PGSQL.5432" to the first line
there. I don't think that file changes very often because of routine
updates anyway, and even if it did you wouldn't lose your custom version.
That's listed as a config file, not a binary, so the revised one would
show up as tmpwatch.rpmnew and it would be your job to reconcile the
packager's changes. People who just let the GUI updater loose might not
notice that though.
Other types of systems will obviously have their own ways to cope with
such local customization. In the short-term, you're already exposed to
the problem when walking down this road because of the edit to the startup
script that creates the symlink in the first place. For some people
that's also a tweak to a script that could be updated in a conflicting
way.
--
* Greg Smith gsmith@gregsmith.com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD