Re: [custom] Custom Debian Distros need the help from debian developers
On Sun, Feb 15, 2004 at 10:04:01AM +0100, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote:
> It feels a bit counter-productive when we in the Skolelinux project
> spend lots of time trying to convince Debian package maintainers to
> add support for package configuration using pre-seeding of debconf
> answers, and then experience that the next maintainer of the same
> package consider this a waste and throw out the code.
>
> As I believe this is an issuse for all custom debian distributions
> (CDD), I bring it up here. (More on CDD on
> <URL:http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?CustomDebian>).
>
> The issue provoking this email is the new ntp packages, removing the
> code we got added to be able to install the package with correct
> configuration. But I suspect there is a broader issue here. I
[..]
In this particular case, the ntp authors removed its debconf use because
they believed it was better if it required no configuration at all.
Isn't that even better than being able to preconfigure it? What extra
configuration of that package do you require?
Of course that's just one example, but I would expect that in most cases
of developers undoing debconf, it's not because they are switching to a
different configuration system but because they are going to no
install-time configuration questions at all.
We've had the debate a few times on this list about whether it is better
to provide defaults for everything you can, or whether it is better to
ask everything, even at low priority. I think sensible defaults wins and
I think our policy manuals agree, but others may not.
Hamish
--
Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <hamish@debian.org> <hamish@cloud.net.au>
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