Retro-actively adjust port's deinstall operations?

[Adam Strohl]

Hello,

I've just submitted a PR to update the CouchDB port from 1.1.0 to 1.2.0:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=168923

Background: CouchDB's local.ini file stores all overridden options and 
default.ini the defaults, similar to /etc/rc.conf & /etc/defaults/rc.conf.

While updating the port I discovered that the existing port lists 
local.ini directly in pkg-plist instead of installing a local.ini.sample 
file and doing proper comparisons/tests for changes.  So it blindly 
removes this file on deinstall.

If my diff in the above PR is accepted when people uninstall the 
existing 1.1.0 port it will remove their config file.  The new port will 
see that there is no local.ini and copy in the sample for them but this 
is really awful for obvious reasons.

Is there a way to reach people with a warning about this _before_ they 
uninstall/reinstall so they can back up the file before upgrading?

Or is /usr/ports/UPDATING it? (and do I need to do anything special to 
have this listed there?)

P.S.
Any other feedback on the PR/diff is welcome.

-- 
Adam Strohl
http://www.ateamsystems.com/