Re: Why do the config scripts always get run twice during install?
On Wed, Sep 18, 2002 at 02:53:29PM -0700, Joe Emenaker wrote:
> I run about 7 Debian boxes... and I keep them all up with "unstable".
> I use dselect to maintain my list of packages to install/remove, and I
> used to use ftp as the fetch method, but I've recently converted all
> over to apt.
>
> Anyway, some time ago (about a year, it seems), many if not all of the
> packages that used debconf seemed to run through debconf twice when I
> would install or upgrade a package.
Yeah, this is the way config scripts have to work, due to the way
debconf has to hack around dpkg at the moment.
> One example that really sticks in my head is "horde", where I get
> asked which DBMS I'm using, then I'm asked for the username/password
> of the root account, and then the username/password of the horde
> account....... THEN, I'm asked all of these questions AGAIN. This same
> behavior seems to happen with things like samba... actually, anything
> that uses debconf, it seems.
These are all bugs in the packages in question, so please make sure
they're filed. You could cite debconf-devel(7):
Note that since a typical package install or upgrade using apt
runs steps 1 and 2, the config script will typically be run
twice. It should do nothing the second time (to ask questions
twice in a row is annoying), and it should definitely be idem-
potent. Luckily, debconf avoids repeating questions by default,
so this is generally easy to accomplish.
Cheers,
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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