The postinstall script from gnome-print creates /etc/gnome/fonts/fontmap2, but its spec file doesn't know this. Since this file is always created when this package is installed, its spec file should take ownership of it as a config file.
A package can't take ownership of a file not distributed with it. And if I distribute one file, the overwrite it in the install, a .rpmsave file will always be created when upgrading -- not a desirable consequence. Doesn't seem much different to me than: $ rpm -qf /etc/lilo.conf file /etc/lilo.conf is not owned by any package $ rpm -qf /etc/ld.so.cache file /etc/ld.so.cache is not owned by any package So, my first instinct anyways is that it is OK the way it is.
As a counter-example, see how /etc/rndc.conf is handled by the "bind" package. /etc/lilo.conf is a bad example because the lilo package doesn't create /etc/lilo.conf. It's created by a human being, and therefore it's reasonable for it not to be part of any package. Similarly, /etc/ld.so.cache isn't created automatically by the installation of any package. On the other hand, the file referenced by this bug report is *always* created by the package during installation, and thus should be claimed by the package. To get around the .rpmsave problem you mentioned, you could either do what bind does or have a preuninstall script that restores these files to their empty contents so that the .rpmsave file won't be created during the upgrade.
I just upgraded to gnome-print-0.30-4, and now I've got another file that isn't owned by any package -- /etc/gnome/fonts/gnome-print-rpm.fontmap. This problem is getting worse, not better :-).
Actuallly, it's not worse, its still one file, just a different one. (Yeah, when packages create files that aren't removed on upgrade, it's hard to tell) * Thu Aug 28 2003 Owen Taylor <otaylor> 1:0.37-7.1 - Ghost /etc/gnome/fonts/gnome-print-rpm.fontmap (#50270, Jonathan Kamens)