Bug#1111577: partman-partitioning: Missing information about default units (GB since trixie)
On 20/08/2025 at 20:05, Holger Wansing wrote:
Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org> wrote (Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:30:45 +0200):
I do not expect other changes in this area any time soon so my comment
is probably coming too late, but IMO a better design would have been to
define the message string advertising the supported and default units in
partman-base templates, and insert it with db_subst in message strings
of other partman-* packages which need to display them.
Since we need to make changes to the templates, we can also make other
changings on the design as well, if we agree that it's worth it.
This is the point: if there is no future change (add new supported
units, change the default unit or add a new package or dialog which uses
size input), then I am not sure it is worth it.
If I look at the current situation:
We have partman-partitioning with its strings mentioning "New partition
size", and we have partman-lvm with strings like "Logical volume size".
To form *ONE* message string which can be used for both packages, we would
need a cover term, which works for both, partitions and logical volumes.
But I think that would be difficult, or if we find one, it is not easily
understandable to the user?
This is not what I had i mind. The strings are too different.
So I guess we need to keep these two sorts of strings separately (with
improvements on several strings), but having all strings together in one
package?
Is this, what you think of?
No. My idea is to split the descriptions in two parts:
- a specific part defined in the package templates
- a common part describing the units defined in partman-base templates
and use debconf substitution feature.
For exemple, partman-base common part could be:
Template: partman-base/size_units
Type: text
# :sl3:
_Description: You can use the following formats: 10KB (Kilobytes), 10KiB
(Kibibytes), 10MB (Megabytes), 10MiB (Mebibytes), 10GB (Gigabytes),
10GiB (Gibibytes), 10TB (Terabytes), 10TiB (Tebibytes), 10PB
(Petabytes), 10PiB (Pebibytes), 10EB (Exabytes), 10EiB (Exbibytes). The
default unit is GB.
partman-lvm specific part could be:
Template: partman-lvm/lvcreate_size
Type: string
# :sl3:
_Description: Logical volume size:
Please enter the size of the new logical volume. ${UNITS_DESC}
partman-lvm script would insert the common description in its specific
description:
db_metaget partman-base/size_units description
db_subst partman-lvm/lvcreate_size UNITS_DESC "$RET"
partman-partitioning specific part could be:
Template: partman-partitioning/new_size
Type: string
Default: some number
# :sl2:
_Description: New partition size:
The minimum size for this partition is ${MINSIZE} (or ${PERCENT}) and
its maximum size is ${MAXSIZE}.
.
Hint: "max" can be used as a shortcut to specify the maximum size, or
enter a percentage (e.g. "20%") to use that percentage of the maximum
size. ${UNITS_DESC}
Template: partman-partitioning/new_partition_size
Type: string
Default: some number
# :sl2:
_Description: New partition size:
The maximum size for this partition is ${MAXSIZE}.
.
Hint: "max" can be used as a shortcut to specify the maximum size, or
enter a percentage (e.g. "20%") to use that percentage of the maximum
size. ${UNITS_DESC}
partman-partitioning scripts would insert the common description in its
specific descriptions:
db_metaget partman-base/size_units description
db_subst partman-partitioning/new_size UNITS_DESC "$RET"
db_subst partman-partitioning/new_partition_size UNITS_DESC "$RET"
I cannot completely overlook, if there are any drawbacks with this BTW,
being the reason why it was made the way as it is now.
One point would be, that the preseed files which work for the users for many
many years, do no longer work then (regarding partitioning) ...
I do not see any reason why such change would break preseed. It would
only affect the way messages are displayed.
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