Re: Filing bug reports in Debian (was Re: Debian Stole My Name!)
Denvid Wright escreveu:
> On Tuesday 14 October 2008, Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
>
>> WARNING: YOU HAVE A LOCKED AND LOADED ASSAULT RIFLE POINTED AT
>> YOUR FEET AND YOUR FINGER IS ON THE TRIGGER.
>>
> Interesting analogy, but it doesn't work, for several reasons. First,
> it's quite possible to remove your finger from the trigger, or to just
> say, "I won't pull the trigger and that solves the whole problem."
> Honestly, there's a good chance that's what I did. As I've said, this
> was 2 years ago and I just don't remember it that clearly.
>
> If you say I have a gun pointed at my feet and my finger is on the
> trigger, then I can make a choice: Do I pull the trigger or not? In
> this case, without warning, apt or aptitude pulls the trigger, WITHOUT
> WARNING.
>
In my view the trigger is pulled when you edit portions of the file that
shouldn't be changed unless special precautions are taken (such as
disabling update-grub). It's true the effect is only seen later, but the
danger lies in editing the automatically changed sections, not in
running update-grub, even if it is that what causes the actual effects
to be seen.
> That's a critical point: The file was overwritten without my knowing or
> without so much as a warning. The warning in menu.lst says:
>
> ## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
> ## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below
>
> Notice it does NOT say when update-grub is run. It does NOT say, "apt
> will overwrite this list when the kernel is upgraded." With the
> warning given, unless someone has a technical understanding of apt,
> they have no reason to anticipate it overwriting menu.lst.
>
The warning could be better worded, and a direct warning at the top of
the file such as
# WARNING: Be careful when editing this file.
# Some parts of it can be changed automatically.
# See <manpages and other references> for more details.
could be added. Going back to the original discussion (I think I'll
regret saying that, but I can't avoid), that would suggest a wishlist bug.
More than that, we may be dealing with exaggerated precautions. If
warnings are given, it's the user responsibility to know what he is
doing and what he is changing in the file.
--
Eduardo M Kalinowski
eduardo@kalinowski.com.br
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