Hi.
(Not that I know the least thing about anything, but I think that policy quite
clearly states that Andrew's suggestion is wrong.)
Andrew Stribblehill wrote:
> Quoting Frank Lichtenheld <Frank.Lichtenheld@usta.de> (2003-03-02 05:39:55 GMT):
>>I'm packaging a program that generates a cache in the users home
>>directory. This cache must be erased for each new upstream release (that
>>would not be often though). Should i place a debconf note about this in the
>>package or should i only mention it in a README.Debian? In the packages
>>own documentation this fact is quite hidden imho.
> But yes, I think a debconf note is worth doing since without it, the
> package will become useless for those who don't know to flush the
> cache.
No!
Policy 2.3.9.1
If a package has a vitally important piece of information to pass to the user
(such as "don't run me as I am, you must edit the following configuration files
first or you risk your system emitting badly-formatted messages"), it should
display this in the config or postinst script and prompt the user to hit return
to acknowledge the message. Copyright messages do not count as vitally
important (they belong in /usr/share/doc/package/copyright); neither do
instructions on how to use a program (these should be in on-line documentation,
where all the users can see them).
The intended piece of information is hardly *vitally* *important*.
Remember: It's debconf not debpopup.
> Shame the program can't test which version wrote the previous cache
> and invalidate it automatically if the version bumps.
It can transparently for the user. You can have a wrapper program do just that
or notify the individual user that he needs to do something. (Just have the
wreapper create a ${HOME}/.eli_version with the version and compare it next time
it's run.)
Cheers
T.
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