Wichert Akkerman wrote:
>
> Okay people, I'm gettig a bit tired of commenting on this all the time
> recently. Please, everyone who likes to join the discussions on this
> and help in doing this subscribe to debian-admintool.
CC'd to -admintool. No more to -private.
> Previously Kristoffer.Rose@ENS-Lyon.FR wrote:
> > 1. Modify dpkg in the following backwards-compatible ways:
> >
> > a. make it execute two scripts: first "postinst" (as today) and then the
> > new one called "postinst-interactive",
>
> No, one of the goals is to configure all packages *before* installing them.
> This has the advantage that a user can answer all questions in a single
> run.
This confuses me. And I think others may also be getting confused because
we have suggestions coming from two different use cases.
1) The downloader -
This is the user who gets his/her updates over the Net and just wants
to be able to run apt-get, then go to a movie, and come back with
everything done, except for the few configuration questions that
need answering. For this user, having the configuration done before
installation doesn't make sense because the package won't be there
until after the download, which would split the upgrade into two cycles.
DOWNLOAD <wait1> CONFIGURE <wait2>
instead of the better
DOWNLOAD <wait1> <wait2> CONFIGURE
* Note that <wait1> is the time spent waiting on the download, while
<wait2> is the time spent unpacking and installing the files.
2) The multi-machine admin -
This user wants to install and config on one machine, then push
everything out to multiple machines. He/She needs to be able to
pre-configure everything going out to those machines.
The problem I see here is that the multi-machine admin will want
to do more than answer the required administration questions...
custom conffiles with options probably not covered by the standard
postinst questions.
That way instead of
/ -- <wait2> CONFIGURE
DOWNLOAD <wait1> --|---- <wait2> CONFIGURE
\ -- <wait2> CONFIGURE
You have the much better:
/ -- <wait2>
DOWNLOAD <wait1> CONFIGURE --|---- <wait2>
\ -- <wait2>
which avoids the multiple CONFIGURE stages on the individual machines.
Is there a good way to reconcile the needs of these two types of users?
For the second case, would it be best just to provide more/better tools
that allow the admin to change the conffiles and/or installscripts
within a .deb without having to get mired down in packaging details?
-Mitch
(who is proud to now have posted 100% of the traffic to this list
for the month of December)
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