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

[Daniel Shahaf <d.s@daniel.shahaf.name>]

Aurelien Jarno wrote on Fri, Dec 25, 2015 at 23:29:42 +0100:
> 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 did read the question, but I misunderstood it: my "should I change the
default?" subroutine had a false positive.  I believe changing the
template from a negative question to a positive question would make it
less likely to be misunderstood in the future.

> > 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.

Oh.  I didn't realize the template is shared.  I'm not sure this issue
is important enough to justify a cross-package coordination effort;
perhaps it should be closed as WONTFIX / ETOOMUCHEFFORT...

> > 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.
> 

Agreed about your suggested phrasing.

Thanks for the detailed reply!

Cheers,

Daniel