On Fri, 2006-10-06 at 20:31 -0400, Tom Horsley wrote: > On Sat, 7 Oct 2006 00:22:26 +0200 > Manuel Arostegui Ramirez <manuel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Beside that, I don't know how some files could dissapear that way ;-) > > This is one of the essential mysteries of computers: Why does the > standard tech support advice "try reinstalling the software" actually > work sometimes? I've seen it correct problems on both Windows and > Linux, so it isn't even an OS-centric thing. > > You'd think copying some files onto the disk would be one of the simplest > operations to get right, and if computers can't even do that correctly, > how do they manage to do vastly more complex activities? That's not the point. When you install a package it may, depending on the rules in the package, delete some files that IT thinks conflict with it. Installing the old package restores the files that were erroneously deleted. Computers, unless there's a fault, generally only do what they're told to do. If the package says "delete file xyz", then that's what it'll do. Don't blame the OS. Blame whoever wrote the package. If you know this was the case, then email or notify the package maintainer that the package has a bug in it and be very explicit about what happened. As the old saying goes, "I can't fix it if I don't know what's broken." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer rstevens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx - - VitalStream, Inc. http://www.vitalstream.com - - - - The gene pool could use a little chlorine. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------
