Re: Asking Debconf questions about database data
Henning Makholm wrote:
> It is at least conceivable for the postinst to actively store the
> reply in an appropriate file in /etc which the postrm later reads.
>
> Not that I think this would make much sense UI-wise anyhow.
Please, please don't do this! Consider what happens when the user
installs the package:
When this package is purged, do you want to delete all the
associated databases? (Y/n)
How's he to know? He's just installing it, doesn't yet know what is
stored there --- or, quite possibly, if he'll even use the package
(could just be installing it to see what it is, or to compare several
solutions). So he might say "yeah, I'm just playing around, sure. Y."
Now, a year later, after using it for a while, he purges it. Ooops. That
'yeah, whatever' last year just deleted his data.
BTW: Do you really even need to ask? Couldn't you just tell the admin,
if you want to delete your data, run dropdb foo? There is a small, but
certainly nonzero, risk of accidental deletion every time you ask. I
imagine that risk increases if, e.g., the admin is having to read a
foreign language (English) which he doesn't know too well.
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