Re: [cdebconf] Backing up can't work if seen questions are skipped

[barbier@linuxfr.org (Denis Barbier)]

On Sun, Nov 09, 2003 at 06:44:58PM +0100, Steinar H. Gunderson wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 09, 2003 at 06:27:47PM +0100, Denis Barbier wrote:
> > Recently cdebconf behavior has been changed to not display already seen
> > questions, in order to help non-interactive installations.
> > But this change makes back up quite useless, because one cannot go
> > back and forth without trouble, some questions are skipped.
> > So I would like to revert this change, is it okay?
> 
> No, please don't revert.
> 
> cdebconf (like debconf) is supposed to defer writing of all "seen" data until
> the end of the script, to fix this very issue. If this does not work, it is 
> indeed a bug, but the "do not display already seen questions" behaviour is
> definitely not. :-)

I changed my mind again, sorry ;)

Cdebconf currently seems to work because most scripts fset seen false,
which is obviously a bad thing.  When those commands are removed, main
menu items can no more be asked again.  The behavior you describe only
applies within a single script, the database is updated as soon as it
finishes.

My current plan is to add an undisplayed debconf/showold question and
set it to true by default.  You can set it to false for non-interactive
installations.

Denis