Werk #18923: Agent bakery .deb packages: Don't clean up /var/lib/check_mk_agent

Component

Checks & agents

Title

Agent bakery .deb packages: Don't clean up /var/lib/check_mk_agent

Date

Dec 10, 2025

Level

Trivial Change

Class

Bug Fix

Compatibility

Incompatible - Manual interaction might be required

Checkmk versions & editions

2.5.0b1 Not yet released	Checkmk Enterprise (CEE), Checkmk Cloud (CCE), Checkmk MSP (CME)

Agent bakery dpkg (.deb) packages for Linux previously removed the directory /var/lib/check_mk_agent on uninstallation.

With this Werk, we stop removing this directory explicitly.

Notes:

Only bakery dpkg packages deleted this directory. All other packages, including the prepackaged dpkg package that comes with the Checkmk installation, left it behind.
This only ever affected the default /var/lib/check_mk_agent directory. If the var directory was configured to some non-standard path with the Installation paths for agent files (Linux, UNIX) (deprecated) ruleset, it never was deleted explicitly on uninstallation.
It is common and expected behavior of dpkg packages to leave variable data behind. More precisely: If a directory is pre-existing before installation and a dpkg package would create it, it won't be deleted on uninstallation. If the dpkg package happens to create a directory, it will only remove it on uninstallation if all files and directories underneath already came with the package. Based on these rules, the /var/lib/check_mk_agent directory is usually left behind on dpkg uninstallation.

If you currently rely on the automatic removal of the package's variable data, please update your workflow or scripts.