Just like users have folklore , system administrationdoes too. Our sort of superstition is a bit different, though ( well , usually ):it is the kind of thing where you say 'I don't know why that's there,but let's not remove it just in case'. When our system environmentsreach a certain level of fragile complexity and westart losing track of the fine details, of course our informed actionsstart descending into rote procedures.

(This really accelerates when new people come

I wrote before about how updating RPMs wouldoccasionally leave .rpmnew files behind that were, in fact,identical to the normal version of the file. I believe that I nowunderstand what causes this and what's going on: I think it's anothermanifestation of the RPM multi-architecture file ownership problem .

The .rpmnew files are created when you update a package where you'vechanged one of its configuration files from the default version andthe package also includes a new version of the configuration file.