On Fri, Jan 22, 1999 at 10:05:14PM -0700, Ivan E. Moore II wrote: > Ok...talking about the ways to do the front-end gui type of > config tool. > > instead of touching the dpkg stuff that is already in place, > why not just have the gui/front-end take a look athe the > database that already exists and from that it can tell > what is installed and what is not. Now..this would require > that the front-end be rather huge and probably and a paint to > maintain...but that would be where the addition to the > existing dpkg infrastructure would come in. Instead of dumping > information like "I'm installed, here is my stuff", it would just > dump in it's stuff...the front-end would get a list from the > package listing and as long as the .deb file installed the > information (maybe a sanity check to make sure the info has been > installed) it will go through the gui. Not quite sure what you are saying here. > I do agree this is a HUGE project and it will need a lot > of thought before attempting anything, I just wanted to throw > more stuff out there. :) > > The hardest part of all of this will be the interface. Figuring > out how the interface will interact with all the possible configuration > scenerios. Then after that, you need to figure out how it will > get it's information...either in advance (a big pain) or from > the .deb when it's installed (better since the maintainer can > keep the information up to date alot easier). But with this you > need structure to it. The only option would be to have the configuration information supplied by the .deb, any other way would be a huge pain and not very effecient, just think of one package containing all the configuration information for every package on the system. > I like the idea of the kernel config type of thing. As there > are 3 different methods of doing it (x, ncurses, basic) which > allows for your choice. > Doing it like the kernel config has nothing to do with having choices. I'm thinking something much better than this, have you ever seen the Gnome control center? I can post a screenshot if you want. It has a window with the all the different configuration sections, e.g. "Network/Daemons/ProFTPD" or something like that. You select it and it brings up the options in a menu on the right by communication with the package through a script that tells the frontend all the variables etc.. It will really be a lot more complex than that but I'm not going into details right now. > One thiing that can't happen is that the config stuff that > is already in place via the dpkg system cannot be removed. It > has to always be there. I say this because I don't think > someone should be forced to use a front-end config tool. Especially > if your using Debian for a server and you want to automate > your updates and upgrades. How could it possibly overwrite the stuff already in place? The script will read variables and stuff from the config files and be responsible for writing them back, basically all the interaction between the frontend and the conffiles. -- Stephen Crowley crow@debian.org, stephenc@wf.net -* Finger crow@va.debian.org for my public key. PGP#22714B25 *-
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