Debian package: conffile and example configurations are installed under /etc

[koen-serry]

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Problem

Summary

The Debian package appears to have two packaging issues:

1. /etc/vector/vector.yaml is not marked as a Debian conffile, causing locally modified configurations to be overwritten during upgrades.
2. Example configuration files are installed under /etc/vector/examples/ and marked as conffiles, even though they appear to be documentation rather than administrator-managed configuration.

Version

• Vector: 0.57.0-1
• Installation method: Official .deb package
• Distribution: Ubuntu
• Upgrade performed with:

sudo dpkg -i vector.deb

Issue 1: /etc/vector/vector.yaml is not a conffile

During an upgrade, my locally modified /etc/vector/vector.yaml was overwritten.

Inspecting the package metadata shows that vector.yaml is not listed as a Debian conffile:

$ cat control/conffiles
/etc/default/vector
/etc/vector/examples/docs_example.yaml
/etc/vector/examples/environment_variables.yaml
/etc/vector/examples/es_s3_hybrid.yaml
/etc/vector/examples/file_to_cloudwatch_metrics.yaml
/etc/vector/examples/file_to_prometheus.yaml
/etc/vector/examples/http_sink_custom_retry.yaml
/etc/vector/examples/prometheus_to_console.yaml
/etc/vector/examples/stdio.yaml
/etc/vector/examples/varint_framing_protobuf.yaml
/etc/vector/examples/wrapped_json.yaml

Since /etc/vector/vector.yaml is absent from DEBIAN/conffiles, dpkg treats it as a regular packaged file and replaces it during upgrades instead of preserving local modifications.

I believe this is a regression related to #18718.

Issue 2: Example configuration files under /etc

The package installs example configurations under /etc/vector/examples/ and marks them as conffiles.

From a Debian packaging perspective, these files seem more appropriate under a location such as:

• /usr/share/doc/vector/examples/, or
• /usr/share/vector/examples/

The /etc hierarchy is intended for host-specific administrator-managed configuration, while example files are static documentation/resources.

Currently the package preserves the example configuration files as conffiles but does not preserve the primary configuration file (/etc/vector/vector.yaml), which seems backwards.

Expected behavior

• /etc/vector/vector.yaml should be listed as a Debian conffile so local modifications are preserved across upgrades.
• Example configuration files should be installed under /usr/share/doc/vector/examples/ (or another appropriate location under /usr/share) instead of /etc, unless there is a specific reason for treating them as administrator-managed configuration.

Configuration

Version

0.57.0-1

Debug Output

Example Data

No response

Additional Context

No response

References

No response