In article <[🔎] 19980403054607.39891@kuolema>, Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.north.de> wrote: >--HSweYDcXXzwPJUPT >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > >On Thu, Apr 02, 1998 at 09:22:04PM -0600, Henry Hollenberg wrote: >> I'm writing a script to install several packages using "dpkg -i" on >> several machines and I'd like to set this up where it can be performed >> unattended. I am doing the same in the moment. The destination is to have a context which resembles 'boot net-install' on Solaris. In the moment, I can use a boot-floppy to get a debian-system which is integrated in our NFS/NIS context using the following procedere: - Booting with the floppy (- Waiting about 1-2 minutes) - Waiting for a query whether to use bootp - Pressing <Return> thrice - Removing the floppy (- Waiting about 15 minutes) - Answering some configuration-questions when they are asked. In the moment, I need to wait ~20 minutes when I am installing a new machine, which tends to happen sometimes... at about 60 Linux machines, with growing tendency, because one working group wants to buy about 20 new machines. If I can remove the need to wait the second 15 minutes, I can get the machine running in ~5 minutes, which is a speedup of 4 (ok... simple math... ;-). To get there, I want to remove the configuration-questions. >> Some of the packages ask some questions during their installation >> and I was wondering if there was some way I could pass them the answers >> I'd like to use so they can go on and do their thing without any >> further care and feeding.....the answeres will be the same every time for >> this purpose. > >As far as I remember there were several approaches: > > . make all read routines a wrapper that looks up the answer in > a database. > > Pro: The administrator could pre-specify the answers in this > database ensuring that other machines get the proper setup > > Con: One needs to maintain such a database, autogenerate or > whatelse This is not a beautiful way to do it, because it tends to break often when packages are updated. > . Let dpkg provide a variable DPKG_NON_INTERACTIVE if called with > an additional switch --non-interactive and ensure that all > installation scripts use pre-defined default values and don't > query the user. > > Pro: easy to implement > every maintainer may easily define appropriate defaults > > Con: needs addition to dpkg and dselect The addition to dpkg and dselect is not really needed. You can pass the variable through dpkg, D.h. 'DPKG_NON_INTERACTIVE=true dpkg -switches'. Some more: There can be individual variables to configure some packages individually. I would be willing to change the packages I want to autoinstall. cu AW
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