Re: Advice for dbconfig-common template

[Justin B Rye <justin.byam.rye@gmail.com>]

Paul Gevers wrote:
> I have a new concern.
> 
> We currently have in the upgrade-error the following line:
>  Fortunately, ${dbfile} holds a backup of the database, made just before
>  the upgrade.
> 
> However, if the error occurred during the creation of the backup this
> message may be confusing. Do you think the following line is better to
> avoid that?
>  Unless the error already occurred during the backup creation,
>  ${dbfile} holds a backup of the database, made just before
>  the upgrade.
> 
> I don't think it is clear enough from this text that if the backup
> failed, no changes were applied (and the operator doesn't need to worry
> about the backup yet). Maybe:
>  Fortunately, ${dbfile} holds a backup of the database, made just before
>  the upgrade (unless the error already occurred during the backup
>  creation, in which case no changes were applied yet).

At least in en_GB*, combining "already" or "yet" with simple past tense
is ungrammatical - I'd fix that by dropping the adverb in one case and
changing the tense in the other.

   Fortunately, ${dbfile} should hold a backup of the database, made just
   before the upgrade (unless the error occurred during backup creation,
   in which case no changes will have been applied yet).

(* there are exceptions in en_US, but I'm not confident I know them
   well enough to recommend using the construction.)
-- 
JBR	with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
	sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package