Re: package configuration design
On Tue, Jul 28, 1998 at 06:46:27PM +0200, Wichert Akkerman wrote:
[snip snap]
> > This can be done by dinstal putting all the "questions" control files
> > in a single distribution-wide file (just like the Packages.gz, let's
> > call it Questions.gz).
>
> No, for the same reason you can't do that for du-information. It would make
> Packages (or Questions.gz) huge, makes the format complicated (remember
> that configmodules can also be normal ELF binaries) and hard to change.
I wasn't aware of the fact that config modules can be binaries (or
programs at all). I was thinking about a simple format like the one
used by the kernel configuration and a program (dpkg-conf?) that
interprets it. Obviously what you propose is much more flexible.
(BTW, you *can* do that for du-information, it isn't that big.)
> But since all packaging tools download all packages before installing them
> you could simply extract all configmodules first, ask everything and then
> proceed as before.
Right. I abandon the idea of Questions.gz.
> > Obviously the user should be given the choice to not configure a package.
> > I think the best thing in that case is to have dpkg just unpack it
> > and log the name of the package.
>
> You mean force the frontend to be non-interactive? That might work, although
> some packages will probably refuse to install then.
I mean that, during the configuration phase, the user may decide to
postpone the configuration of a package (maybe she wants to read
some docs but the docs aren't installed until the package is
unpacked...). In that case dpkg should go on, unpack the package and
any depending package but not configure them (because conf-information
is not yet available). This can also be usefull if you upgrade the
entire dist. The database should contain 95% of the needed configuration
parameters so dpkg can install and configure 95% of the packages.
Then toy say dpkg --configure --pending and configure the remaining 5%.
Ciao,
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