Hello world,
After some discussion on the debconf list [0] it appears that policy
and current practice are in conflict, and that it's probably a good idea
to get this conflict resolved before debconf gets added to policy.
The conflict I'm referring to is from s2.3.8, Maintainer Scripts.
The first paragraph of that section states:
``The package installation scripts should avoid producing output
which it (sic) is unnecessary for the user to see and should rely
on `dpkg' to stave off boredom on the part of a user installing
many packages. [...]''
The fourth paragraph continues:
``If a package has a vitally important piece of information to pass to
the user [...] it should display this in the `postinst' script and
prompt the user to hit return to acknowledge the message.''
These two paragraphs are often put together to form the conclusion that:
(a) You shouldn't have any non-crucial output from postinst
(b) All output you do have must be followed by a "Press enter" prompt
Hmmm. I'm not actually sure this conclusion makes sense now. Joey, am
I mis-stating something? (It seems to me there's a difference between
"necessary" output, which can be displayed, and "vitally important"
output, which must pause the installation)
The sorts of information which currently get displayed, but which don't
get prompted for, are things like "Restarting internet superserver:
inetd", or "Updating /etc/network/interfaces: succeeded".
To me, those sorts of outputs seem useful and helpful, so I think policy
should probably explicitly allow for them, or at least not forbid them
as it apparently does atm.
Some comments would be appreciated.
Cheers,
aj
[0] config@kitenet.net
--
Anthony Towns <aj@humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
I don't speak for anyone save myself. GPG signed mail preferred.
``We reject: kings, presidents, and voting.
We believe in: rough consensus and working code.''
-- Dave Clark
Attachment:
pgpfvN_X4ZGDV.pgp
Description: PGP signature