Re: more post-upgrade weirdness: debconf

[cjw44@flatline.org.uk (Colin Watson)]

David B. Harris <dbarclay10@yahoo.ca> wrote:
>If you're trying to reconfigure a package(which will probably use
>services provided by the "debconf" package), you're probably looking for
>the 'dpkg --configure <package>' command.

Actually, he's probably looking for the dpkg-reconfigure command. 'dpkg
--configure' won't do anything after the package has been installed:

  [cjw44@riva ~]$ sudo dpkg --configure debconf
  Password:
  dpkg: error processing debconf (--configure):
   package debconf is already installed and configured
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   debconf

The '--configure' refers to the part of the package installation process
after the package has been unpacked - it updates any conffiles and calls
the package's post-installation script. (Section 6 of the Packaging
Manual has all the gory details of how package installation works if
you're interested.)

debconf was written well after this process was designed, and its
configuration interface typically bolts on more or less before unpacking
so that questions can be asked at the beginning of an upgrade rather
than interrupting long upgrades part-way through. Sometimes questions
are asked in the configuration phase as well, but usually they shouldn't
be. dpkg-reconfigure allows you to independently have the questions
asked again.

-- 
Colin Watson                                     [cjw44@flatline.org.uk]