Hi guys,
Attached a proof-of-concept for the advanced use case (in which the user
actually wants to review which buggy packages to pin or upgrade). Consider
this as a basis for further discussion, rather than something anywhere near a
working patch.
To give it a try, save the attached files in the same directory (doesn't
matter where), make apt-listbugs executable and run it as root (debconf needs
to write /var/cache/debconf/{config,templates}.dat).
The template file declares the contents of the debconf screen, whereby the
multi-choice options are populated by the shell script via the $packages
variable.
The script overrides the "seen" debconf flag so that the question is asked
every single time (to override the default debconf behaviour; feels like a
hack).
Going forward from here, one possibility would be for the apt-listbugs ruby
script to invoke the debconf script (passing on the package/bug num/bug title
info and getting back the user reply, via a tempfile or something along those
lines).
One issue with the debconf approach is that you can't fire up a browser to
lookup a bug report before making the pin/upgrade decision (something that's
possible with the current non-debconf based interaction). You also can't ^Z
the debconf screen to do so manually. Any ideas about working around this?
Another issue that should be straightforward: use debconf in postinst to ask
the user to choose between newbie and advance use (ie. whether one should go
through the above dialog on every invocation, or let apt-listbugs upgrade only
non-rc-buggy packages without asking) -- defaulting to newbie mode?
cheers,
sez
--
Every great idea is worthless without someone to do the work. --Neil Williams
#!/bin/sh
set -e
export DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer
# debconf fails when DEBCONF_PACKAGE is set, but without it the
# template entry in /var/cache/dpkg/config.dat has an unkown Owner,
# which means that we can't remove it when apt-listbugs is purged.
#export DEBCONF_PACKAGE="apt-listbugs"
# other values: text, dialog, kde, web (the two latter hang for me)
#export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=gnome
# source debconf libary.
. /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
# to be constructed on the fly, based on apt & bts input
PACKAGES="package0 #abcdef (short description), package1 #abcdef (short
description)"
# ask debconf to *always* show this question. without this, the
# question will be shown only the first time, even for different
# value sof $PACKAGES
db_fset apt-listbugs/select-packages seen false
# populate the template question with the list of RC-buggy packages
# and associated bug numbers
db_subst apt-listbugs/select-packages packages "$PACKAGES"
# priority has to be high-enough, otherwise priority overrides the "seen:
false" false
db_input critical apt-listbugs/select-packages || true
db_go || true
db_get apt-listbugs/select-packages || true
PACKAGES_TO_UPGRADE="$RET"
# Close all fd's
db_stop
exit 0
Template: apt-listbugs/select-packages
Type: multiselect
Choices: ${packages}
Description: Select packages to upgrade, at your own risk:
The packages below will be pinned to the currently installed version, because
their latest version is known to have a serious bug.
.
If you know what you are doing, you can nevertheless upgrade certain packages
by selecting them in the list below.
