interactiveness in methods
Hello? Is this list dead? :-)
Here's the deal. I sat down today to try my hand at a
"mountable" method for apt (a better sollution than "cdrom"
IMHO) and I noticed it wouldn't be possible - at least, not the
way I conceived it, unless it was implemented internally.
Reason: the advantage of having such a method would be the
possibility of using multiple removeable media - a set of
CDROMs, for example. The method would want to confirm that the
correct CD is in the drive, before mounting it. For that, there
would have to be a way of getting user feedback. As the
documentation says that stdin will be invalid, something must be
done.
The protocol I propose fits nicely in the current paradigm - I
think. The method requests user confirmation via stdout, and apt
answers using signals, as in:
(the method outputs this to stdout)
W Please insert the media labeled "Official binary-i386 CD"
(apt-get would output this:)
Please insert the media labeled "Official binary-i386 CD"
Press ENTER when done, or "s" to skip
(the future apt GUI would likely display a dialog with the
prompt string and two buttons, "Ok" and "Skip")
If the user confirms (ENTER), the UI sends a SIGUSR1 to the
method; if the user skips, the UI sends a SIGABRT (I think this
is the best one, someone correct me if it isn't).
Opinions?
-----
BTW... this is the URI I'm imagining for mountable:
mountable:label@mountpoint:path
as in
mountable:Official binary-i386 CD@/cdrom:debian
mountable:local extras CD@/cdrom:debian/packages
Lalo - sigless till I get my conffiles from home
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