Bug#160776: debian-policy: [PROPOSAL] debconf spec updates to conform with reality
Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.5.7.0
Severity: normal
These modifications to the debconf spec simply make it conform to the
reality of how some things work now. This is part of an effort to make
debconf and cdebconf better substitutes for each other.
Randolph Chung has plans to rewrite this entire spec later on, so this
is just a patch until then.
--- debconf_specification.txt.orig 2002-09-11 13:08:20.000000000 -0400
+++ debconf_specification.txt 2002-09-11 13:17:21.000000000 -0400
@@ -164,6 +164,11 @@
This is the domain your computer is a member of. Typically it is
something like "mycompany.com" or "myuniversity.edu".
+ For localization, the description field (and also the choices field of
+ a select or multiselect type question, and the default field of a string
+ or password type question) can be supplimented with versions for other
+ languages. These are named "Description-ll", "Description-ll_LL",
+ "Description-ll_LL.encoding" and so on.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -251,9 +256,9 @@
|-------------+------------------------------------------------------|
| backup | Backing up to a previous step is supported. |
|-------------+------------------------------------------------------|
- | | The multiselect data type is supported. For |
- | multiselect | compatability reasons, you should not ask questions |
- | | of this type unless this capability is returned. |
+ | | The multiselect data type is supported. |
+ | multiselect | You do not need to check this capability if you |
+ | | depend on any modern version of debconf. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
* TITLE string
@@ -344,7 +349,8 @@
* SUBST question key value
Questions (and other items) can have substitutions embedded in their
- descriptions. These substitutions look like "${key}". When the
+ descriptions (and, currently in their choices fields).
+ These substitutions look like "${key}". When the
question is displayed, the substitutions are replaced with their
values. This command can be used to set the value of a substitution.
@@ -366,6 +372,12 @@
you can set the seen flag to false to force the frontend to redisplay
it.
+ Note that as a special convenience behavior, frontends will
+ redisplay already seen questons if the question was first seen by
+ the user in the same confmodule run. This makes it easy for a
+ confmodule to back up to previous questons without having to reset
+ the seen flag.
+
* METAGET question field
This returns the value of any field of a question (the description,
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