Re: Some more debconf queries
On 11-May-00, 09:54 (CDT), John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> wrote:
> Jules Bean <jmlb2@hermes.cam.ac.uk> writes:
>
> > > In these cases, we are faced with either modifying the conffile
> > > directly or using a template. If a template is used, the user must
> > > run our own utility after editing the file -- not good.
> >
> > Yeah, I'm aware of the meta-problem.
> >
> > AFAIK, it doesn't have a neat solution short of requiring all packages
> > to use a consistent coherent configuration mechanism which has a
> > library interface, and interfacing debconf to that.
>
> That's fine. I don't need that. I just need ANY solution :-)
>
> Let's give a specific example, that of postfix that I mentioned. What
> specifically should I have debconf scripts do in that situation?
> Parse the conffiles and edit them in place? Use templates? What?
>
> I just need some solid answer here :-)
(Note distinction between "conffile" and "configuration file")
You can't use conffiles if Debconf is going to edit them, given current
policy. You need to deal with the configuration files yourself, which
basically means the the file(s) are *not* in the .deb, but are generated
(or copied from another location in the .deb) on the initial install
(typically in the postinst), and cleaned up appropriately on 'purge' but
not 'remove' (typically in the postrm). See the policy manual section
on configuration files.
Given the dictum that the debconf database is not a registry, use of
debconf basically kills the conffile mechanism.
Steve
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