Bug#727680: “Yes, do as I say!“ sounds odd
David Kalnischkies wrote:
> Stepping back for a second and freeing myself from the consequences:
> How about dropping this question altogether?
>
> We have a flag which is (supposed to be) able to skip this question:
> --force-yes which is described as being potentially harmful in the manpage.
>
> Rational:
> Users who run into this question by 'accident' aren't saying yes to it;
> Users who know they will because they are changing e.g. the init system
> are just annoyed by the question.
>
> So how about:
> […]
> 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 5 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> After this operation, 5509 kB disk space will be freed.
>
> WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed:
> apt
> The outlined actions are potentially very harmful, so executing them
> is refused by default, but can be forced with the --force-yes flag.
> This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing!
> #
>
> (I am open for a better suggestion regarding the actual message)
>
> It would be an interface change, but those aren't a problem, people
> depending on the old one could just keep using the old version. SCNR.
> What I really mean is: In this particular case, I really hope nobody
> is doing something as insane as depending on this. [0]
>
> What do you two think?
I'm rather against that.
--force-all does't only force removal of essential packages, but also
AFAIK installation from untrusted sources, etc.
More generally, I think that options like "--force-all" shouls /never/
be recommanded as good practices. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
That's why I'm more in favor of "Yes, I do understand this can be harmful."
Best regards,
--
fabien givors
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