Re: stop the "manage with debconf" madness

[Steve Greenland <steveg@moregruel.net>]

On 16-Apr-03, 18:08 (CDT), Colin Walters <walters@debian.org> wrote: 
> Debconf is NOT a license to overwrite user's configurations!  

You've correctly identified the problem.

> I propose a different solution to this problem, which conforms much more
> with policy, while still allowing debconf to be used as much as
> possible.

But that's not the solution.

Debconf is *NOT* a general purpose configuration tool. Debconf is
*ONLY* a standardized way of interacting with the user during package
installation, for configuration values that *CANNOT* be reasonably
defaulted.

That's it. Any other use is a clear violation of Debian configuration
file policy. In particular, using debconf to modify existing
configuration files, whether conffiles or not, is wrong. I'd allow an
exception for "dpkg-reconfigure", since this is clear that the admin is
deliberately asking for it.

Steve, extremely disappointed about how chatty package installation has
become.

-- 
Steve Greenland
    The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating
    system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the
    world.       -- seen on the net