Re: /usr/local (again)

[Buddha Buck <bmbuck@acsu.buffalo.edu>]

> I'd like some (easy) way of storing answers to questions. The
> questions and answers could be shared between packages, when
> suitable. One such question would be whether the local admin
> wants to allow creation of the empty directories in /usr/local.
> 
> If we want to be ambitious, we'll create a fancy language for
> defining the user interaction. Something similar to dialog, but
> something that is not tied to text terminals, so that it can
> later be extended to X as well. It's a big project, of course,
> and not something that should be undertaken lightly.

I know that the Linux kernel has already solved that problem with their 
configuration setup programs -- they have three interfaces (text-based, 
curses based, and Tcl/Tk based) running off the same script, to 
generate the configuraton file.  It also allows you to edit the 
configuration using the same tools, by reading and parsing its own 
output.  It also allows the definition of arbitrary complex things and 
has the ability to handle interactions between items.

Could this be adapted for our needs?  It might not be perfect, but it 
-is- a start.  Some modifications I could see being necessary would be 
to create a way of handling separate config scripts for each package 
that need them, and a few other minor issues.


> 
> Getting answers to these questions before unpacking anything
> would probably be a good idea.
> 

This is useful for global options (what to do with /usr/local, for instance), but what about package-related options?

Or are we thinking of two separate (but related) problems?

-- 
     Buddha Buck                      bmbuck@acsu.buffalo.edu
"Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our
liberty depends upon the chaos and cacaphony of the unfettered speech
the First Amendment protects."  -- A.L.A. v. U.S. Dept. of Justice