Bug#808721: libc: avoid negative questions in restart-without-asking debconf knob

[Aurelien Jarno <aurelien@aurel32.net>]

control: reassign -1 libc6,pam,openssl
control: retitle -1 libc6,pam,openssl: avoid negative questions in restart-without-asking debconf knob

On 2015-12-22 07:43, Daniel Shahaf wrote:
> Package: libc6
> Version: 2.21-4
> Severity: minor
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> The restart-without-asking debconf knob is formulated as a negative question:
> 
>     Template: libraries/restart-without-asking
>     Type: boolean
>     Default: false
>     _Description: Restart services during package upgrades without asking?
> 
> This can be confusing: in my case, I initially thought I should pick "yes"
> since I read the question is "would you like to be prompted before restarting
> services".

I am not a native speaker, but I don't see this as problematic. The
default is actually "no", so this mean you are supposed to actually read
the question before changing the default.

> I suggest to change the description to:
> ..
>     _Description: Ask permission to restart services during package upgrades?
> ..
> and accordingly change the default answer to "Yes" (which would not be
> a semantic change).

I have to say "Ask permission" sounds even more confusing to me, it's
not really clear how is it going to be asked. "would you like to be
prompted" sounds more clear to me.

> I assume this could be done backwards-compatibly by defining a new knob
> (restart-without-asking2) and looking for the current knob name if the new knob
> isn't set.

If we really want to change this, this is not that easy. The template is
shared with pam and openssl, so this need everybody to agree and some
coordination. I am therefore reassigning the bug to this three packages.

Aurelien

-- 
Aurelien Jarno                          GPG: 4096R/1DDD8C9B
aurelien@aurel32.net                 http://www.aurel32.net