For those packages in particular it will not be so bad, but as soon as you start describing how to setup low-level network configuration (IP addresses, additional tunnel or dummy interfaces, etc) it is very dependent on version especially due to packages like systemd and networkmanager, which like to "deprecate" all existing versatile and wellknown mechanisms and replace them with their limited view of the world. (usually limited to laptops connecting dynamically to networks)
I fully expect /etc/network/interfaces[.d] to be gone in the next Debian version, for example.
Rob
On 5/18/21 12:04 PM, Ruben ON3RVH via 44Net wrote:
Agreed about unattended updates, they should be enabled, especially when the end user has no linux clue, but beware of package updates which make some config settings obsolete and will bail out if they find some old no longer used config statement . An installation manual describing how to install the packages and change configuration files should not fail in future versions unless the distro maintainers suddenly decide to replace systemd or make drastic changes. Package names will stay the same, config locations also stay the same. At least for OpenVPN, Bind/PowerDNS, Bird/Quagga, .. (unless you compile everything from source, but even then you can include the path to where it should store its config files)
73
Ruben ON3RVH