Re: suggestion: sound "bell" at each package-specific dialog/warning
On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 02:46:09PM +0000, Filippo Cattaneo <filippo.cattaneo@alum.mit.edu> was heard to say:
> When apt is running an upgrade or multiple new package installs, this
> process stops when human intervention is required for a given package
> - BUT NO AUDIBLE PROMPT is issued to summon the indispensable human
> back to the console.
I'm not sure which "stopping for human intervention" you're talking
about. There are several places where the user is prompted, but once
you hit Enter at "Do you want to continue [Y/n]? " it's not apt that's
asking you. You should ask the maintainers of the individual packages
that do prompting (or design a uniform interaction framework that
everyone can agree on and that everyone will adopt):
* apt-listchanges will show you the changelogs and ask whether you
want to continue with the installation after you've read them.
* apt-listbugs will list the release-critical bugs associated with a
package and ask if you want to continue the installation.
* debconf will ask a bunch of questions about all the packages you're
installing before you install them.
* Various package maintainer scripts will prompt the user for input.
Some of them go through debconf, while others prompt directly.
Prompting directly is deprecated (see Policy 3.9.1); I don't know
how many packages still do this.
I bet the last case is what you're talking about. For packages which
go through debconf, this could be solved by getting debconf to ring the
terminal bell or play the desktop environment's "attention needed" sound
when it has a question to ask. This should probably be suppressable so
we don't annoy the user at the beginning of the installation (when
presumably they're still sitting in front of the keyboard).
Daniel
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