Re: Right Way to make a configuration package

[Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>]

[Thomas Hood]
> Debconf wasn't designed to serve the purpose to which you are trying
> to put it.  "Debconf is not a registry."

Actually, debconf was designed for first-time configuration of
packages, and is well suited for the task.  Your mantra "debconf is
not a registry" does not apply here.

> Suppose you have packages x and y with configuration files xconf and
> yconf.  Your package z should contain a program that reads xconf and
> yconf and writes them out again with new values.

This do not scale well, and make it harder to share knowledge across
several custom debian distros.

> If x and y have configuration utilities xcfg and ycfg then z should
> insofar as possible use xcfg and ycfg to make changes to x's and y's
> configurations.

Agreed, when we are talking about configuration of already installed
packages.  When we are talking about configuring packages during
installation, debconf is well suited.