UPDATE-RCCONF-GUIDE(8)

💖 UPDATE-RCCONF-GUIDE — bestie edition ✨

okay so real talk, this is the update-rcconf-guide page from the Debian GNU/Linux manual, section 8 (that's the "admin commands" girlies 💅). She's a tiny little helper script and honestly? she eats. let's get into it 🫶

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🌸 NAME 🌸

update-rcconf-guide — she makes the default guide file for rcconf. that's it. that's the job. iconic behavior 💖

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

update-rcconf-guide

no flags, no arguments, no drama. you just type her name and she goes ✨

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the tea 🍓 — update-rcconf-guide creates the default guide file that rcconf uses. like, rcconf's whole personality depends on this file existing, so this script is lowkey the main character 👑

the way she does it is actually kinda clever. she goes hunting through the /etc/init.d directory and, for each service file in there, she looks up which package that service belongs to by digging through the dpkg info files — yep, that's /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list, she's reading those fr fr 📂 — and then she grabs the description of those packages using apt-cache. slay.

and here's the lil detail that matters: if a service file has a Short-Description field, she uses that in priority to the description. so Short-Description wins, periodt 💅 then she writes all those results into /var/lib/rcconf/guide.default. done. ✨

now, you are not stuck with her version forever — you can absolutely write your own guide by hand in the user guide file, which lives at /var/lib/rcconf/guide. and when rcconf goes looking for guides, she checks the ones in /var/lib/rcconf/guide before the ones in /var/lib/rcconf/guide.default. so your hand-written stuff takes priority. you're the blueprint, bestie 💖

⚠️ and now the part you actually need to remember: if you install some packages after you've already run update-rcconf-guide, you have to re-create this file by running update-rcconf-guide again — that's the only way to refresh guide.default so it includes new guides for the new services you just installed. no cap, the file does not update itself, she is not psychic 😭

🚨 Notice: update-rcconf-guide was not executed when you installed the rcconf package. so if you're wondering why the guide file is missing or stale — that's why. you gotta run her yourself, bestie. go go go 🏃‍♀️

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🎀 FILE 🎀

• /var/lib/rcconf/guide.default — the Guide File that update-rcconf-guide generates. her art. her legacy. 🎨
• /var/lib/rcconf/guide — the Guide File that the user (that's the Administrator, aka you 👑) can define.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• rcconf(8) — go read her too, they're a package deal 💜

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Atsushi KAMOSHIDA <kamop@debian.org> — thank you for your service, king 🫡✨

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and that's the whole vibe check 💅 this page came to you from perl v5.28.0, dated 2018-11-11, and yeah, she's still out here generating guide files like the queen she is 👑💖 bye bestie, go run your script 🦋🌸