Comment 17 for bug 576255

Adam Conrad - "This isn't apache-specific, though it seems that apache users seem to be one of the larger groups of people who think that deleting conffiles will improve their lives somehow. Not really sure how to curb that, but not with bugs in apache."

I didn't delete any config files, yet I also have this problem. And if apache upgrades break without faulty user intervertion, then it is most definitely a packaging bug. Locate reqtimeout returns only "/usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_reqtimeout.so" but there has never been any matching set of .conf and .load files in /etc/apache2/mods-available, as verified by perusing full system backups dating back to 2010-07-31. The problem just occurred for me a couple weeks ago after no modification to the system--other than upgrades--since install at 2010-04-13. If I had to make a guess, it would be that dpkg is currently expecting a file that it didn't previously provide and then assuming its absence implicates manual deletion, which is obviously a problem for anyone who expects server upgrades between untampered states to be reliable. Shouldn't they?

I'm not convinced that manual deletion should be allowed to interfere either. Non-stock configuration (particularly living in /etc) is sysadmin domain and none of dpkg's concern unless --purge --reinstall is explicitly requested. If user action has broken something, fine. Let user deal with it instead of taking down a service that might have been working anyway (as it was). All dpkg should be doing is reporting /changes/ in requirements, in which case it should be supplying them.