By reading documentation available to developers, I came to these both excerpts of the debconf-devel(7) manpage explaining the debconf protocol and data types:
Type
The type of the template determines what kind of widget is
displayed to the user. The currently supported types are:
.../...
note
Rather than being a question per se, this datatype indicates a
note that can be displayed to the user. It should be used only
for important notes that the user really should see, since
debconf will go to great pains to make sure the user sees it;
halting the install for them to press a key, and even mailing the
note to them in some cases. It's best to use these only for
warning about very serious problems.
.../...
INPUT priority question
Ask debconf to prepare to display a question to the user. The
question is not actually displayed until a GO command is issued;
this lets several INPUT commands be given in series, to build up a
set of questions, which might all be asked on a single screen.
The priority field tells debconf how important it is that this
question be shown to the user. The priority values are:
low Very trivial items that have defaults that will work in
the vast majority of cases; only control freaks see these.
medium Normal items that have reasonable defaults.
high Items that don't have a reasonable default.
critical
Items that will probably break the system without user intervention.
As a conclusion and combining both, I would really like to unsderstand
why so many fellow developers insist on using LOW priority NOTES in
their debconf templates and use them in maintainer scripts.
Most often these templates sound like an attempt to explain deep
technical....details which really should go to README.Debian or
NEWS.Debian depending on the topic.
In short, a note should only be used for IMPORTANT stuff, so actually
all debconf notes should be priority high....or should not exist!
Translating these notes requires often a big effort by translators. If
that effort is usually not visible (or very often not visible), it is
quite wasted.
Before launching a mass bug-filing campaign, I would like to get
fellow developers opinions. Would there be important objections to
such a campaign targeting first all packages using notes at low
priority, then those using notes at medium priority?
A specific check could of course be added to lintian, in the same
time, to prevent the re-development of such "mistakes" (if we decide
to call them this way).
The following data is courtesy of Thomas Huriaux who did all the black
magic extracting it:
Packages with low priority debconf notes:
-----------------------------------------
Aide Maintainers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
aide -- config:18 aide/setmailaddress
Alexis Sukrieh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
backup-manager -- config:64 backup-manager/upload-user-scp-warning
Andreas Schuldei <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
webmin-ldap-user-simple -- config:18 webmin-ldap-skolelinux/no-auto-config
Andrés Roldán <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mtop -- config:86 mtop/info
Anton Zinoviev <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
kbedic -- postinst:34 kbedic/failed_download
Aurélien GÉRÔME <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
hybserv -- config:6 hybserv/configure-hybrid-notice
Ben Collins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
libraw1394-5 -- config:9 libraw1394/device_node
Camm Maguire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
atlas3-3dnow -- config:8 atlas3/ldlp
atlas3-3dnow -- config:9 atlas3/blas_lapack
atlas3-3dnow -- config:11 atlas3-3dnow/3dnow_extensions
atlas3-3dnow -- config:15 atlas3/nfs
atlas3-base -- config:10 atlas3/ldlp
atlas3-base -- config:11 atlas3/blas_lapack
atlas3-base -- config:12 atlas3/nfs
atlas3-sse2 -- config:6 atlas3/ldlp
atlas3-sse2 -- config:7 atlas3/blas_lapack
atlas3-sse2 -- config:11 atlas3-sse2/sse2_extensions
atlas3-sse2 -- config:15 atlas3/nfs
atlas3-sse -- config:6 atlas3/ldlp
atlas3-sse -- config:7 atlas3/blas_lapack
atlas3-sse -- config:10 atlas3-sse/sse_extensions
atlas3-sse -- config:14 atlas3/nfs
Davide G. M. Salvetti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mailcrypt -- config:36 mailcrypt/alreadydefault
Debian QA Group <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
f-prot-installer -- postinst:28 f-prot-installer/failed
Debian logcheck Team <logcheck-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>
logcheck-database -- config:17 logcheck-database/standard-rename-note
Debian tpctl maintainers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
tpctl -- config:8 tpctl/apmiser-installed
Eric Delaunay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
xtel -- config:7 xtel/fonts_note
Giuseppe Sacco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
hylafax-server -- postinst:231 hylafax-server/configure_note
Guillem Jover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
fbset -- config:16 fbset/create_framebuffer_devices
xfstt -- config:13 xfstt/default_port_changed
Javier Fernandez-Sanguino Pen~a <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
checksecurity -- postinst:8 checksecurity/oldconf
Jean-Michel Kelbert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wflogs -- config:145 wflogs/email_more_questions
Mark Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
leafnode -- config:85 leafnode/update-groupinfo
leafnode -- config:87 leafnode/update-groupinfo
powertweakd -- config:15 powertweak/creating_device_files
powertweakd -- config:23 powertweak/daemon_config
x86info -- config:11 x86info/create_device_files
Matthew Vernon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
openssh-server -- config:61 ssh/insecure_telnetd
Nick Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
teapop -- config:38 teapop/already-passwd
teapop-ldap -- config:38 teapop/already-passwd
teapop-mysql -- config:38 teapop/already-passwd
teapop-pgsql -- config:38 teapop/already-passwd
Nicolas Boullis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
em8300 -- postinst:27 em8300/microcode/download_failed
Norbert Tretkowski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
slrn -- config:72 slrn/manual_getdescs
slrnpull -- config:49 slrnpull/run_manual
Ola Lundqvist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
harden -- config:8 harden/welcome
Pascal Hakim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
anacron -- config:11 anacron/jobs_in_crontab
Paul Slootman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
ipppd -- config:22 ipppd/wrongif
isdnvboxserver -- config:66 isdnvboxserver/doityourself
isdnvboxserver -- config:171 isdnvboxserver/doityourself
isdnvboxserver -- postinst:217 isdnvboxserver/spoolcreate
isdnvboxserver -- postinst:260 isdnvboxserver/spoolcreate
Pawel Wiecek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
libvpopmail-freecdb -- postinst:33 shared/vpopmail/enableplugin
libvpopmail-lmysql -- postinst:33 shared/vpopmail/enableplugin
libvpopmail-lmysql -- postinst:34 shared/vpopmail/mysqlconf
libvpopmail-mysql -- postinst:33 shared/vpopmail/enableplugin
libvpopmail-mysql -- postinst:34 shared/vpopmail/mysqlconf
Pierre Ancelot <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
hwtools -- config:9 hwtools/no-scsi
Radovan Garabík <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
efingerd -- config:14 efingerd/note
karrigell -- config:12 karrigell/note
Roland Bauerschmidt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
colormake -- config:14 colormake/renamed
Sam Hartman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
ssh-krb5 -- config:72 ssh/insecure_telnetd
ssh-krb5 -- config:94 ssh/forward_warning
Stefan Hornburg (Racke) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
interchange -- config:172 interchange/cansoap
Takuo KITAME <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mozilla-browser -- config:26 mozilla/prefs_note
Tollef Fog Heen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
msttcorefonts -- config:73 msttcorefonts/blurb
Tomohiro KUBOTA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
language-env -- config:6 language-env/installation_is_insufficient
Vivek Dasmohapatra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
dbishell -- config:7 dbishell/dbiwarning
Volker Ossenkopf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
workman -- postinst:28 workman/cdrom_link_created
workman -- postinst:38 workman/cdrom_gid_changed
workman -- postinst:47 workman/cdrom_perm_changed
xvmount -- postinst:84 xvmount/convert_succeeded
xvmount -- postinst:112 xvmount/generate_succeeded
Wouter Verhelst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
nbd-client -- config:17 nbd-client/no-auto-config
nbd-server -- config:13 nbd-server/autogen
Yu Guanghui <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
zhcon -- config:8 zhcon/rebuild_kernel
resolvconf maintainers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
resolvconf -- config:33 resolvconf/bad-pppconfig-hook
resolvconf -- config:38 resolvconf/bad-pppconfig-hook
resolvconf -- config:42 resolvconf/bad-pppoeconf-hook
resolvconf -- config:46 resolvconf/bad-xisp-hook
resolvconf -- config:51 resolvconf/bad-xisp-hook
Packages with medium priority debconf notes:
--------------------------------------------
Aide Maintainers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
aide -- config:23 aide/mustaideinit
Andreas Barth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mgetty-fax -- config:9 mgetty-fax/new_security_scheme
Andrés Roldán <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mtop -- config:81 mtop/mismatch
Anibal Monsalve Salazar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
apmd -- config:42 apmd/hdparm-removed
Anton Zinoviev <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
console-cyrillic -- config:187 console-cyrillic/abusing_debconf
Arnaud Quette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
nut -- config:29 nut/change_system_user
Aurelien Jarno <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
libsensors3 -- config:12 libsensors3/old2.6kernel
libsensors3 -- config:20 libsensors3/nosensors_2.6
Bart Cornelis (cobaco) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
desktop-profiles -- config:15
desktop-profiles/replace-gconf-system-wide-path-file
desktop-profiles -- config:27
desktop-profiles/replace-gconf-system-wide-path-file
Bart Martens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
flashplugin-nonfree -- config:20 flashplugin-nonfree/not_exist
Bdale Garbee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
amanda-common -- config:10 amanda-common/merge_amandates
dump -- config:13 dump/dumpdates_is_a_symlink
dump -- config:19 dump/moving_from_etc_to_var
Camm Maguire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
lam-runtime -- config:10 lam-runtime/lam4
Carlo Contavalli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wipl-client-java -- config:10 wipl-client-java/info
Christian Hammers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mysql-server-5.0 -- config:15 mysql-server-5.0/mysql_install_db_notes
Christian Marillat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
cricket -- config:13 cricket/config_tree_moved
Clément Stenac <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
spong-client -- config:7 spong-client/init
Colin Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
trn4 -- config:89 trn4/whoami-change
Console utilities maintainers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
console-setup -- config:1817 console-setup/dont_ask_layout
console-setup-mini -- config:1817 console-setup/dont_ask_layout
David B. Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
shaper -- config:33 shaper/kernel-modules
David Gil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
phpgacl -- config:13 phpgacl/setup
Davide G. M. Salvetti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
auctex -- config:34 auctex/defaultchanged
Debian QA Group <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
f-prot-installer -- config:88 f-prot-installer/install_later
xapple2 -- config:8 xapple2/suid
Debian TeX maintainers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
tetex-bin -- config:44 tetex-bin/cnf_name
tex-common -- config:48 tex-common/cnf_name
Debian logcheck Team <logcheck-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>
logcheck -- config:14 logcheck/install-note
logcheck -- config:17 logcheck/changes
Debian tpctl maintainers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
tpctl -- config:7 tpctl/need-thinkpad-modules
Ed Boraas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
reiser4progs -- config:9 reiser4progs/new_disk_format
Elie Rosenblum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
album -- config:6 album/info
Eloy A. Paris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
dhcp3-client -- postinst:22 dhcp3-client/dhclient-script_moved
dhcp3-client -- postinst:25 dhcp3-client/dhclient-needs-restarting
Emmanuel Lacour <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
suphp-common -- config:14 suphp-common/upgrade0.6.0
Emmanuel le Chevoir <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
xsmbrowser -- config:19 xsmbrowser/etc_dir
Eric Delaunay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
xtel -- config:10 xtel/ppp_note
Federico Di Gregorio <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
nvidia-cg-toolkit -- config:20 nvidia-cg-toolkit/not_exist
Francesco Paolo Lovergine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
aolserver4 -- config:9 aolserver4/introduction
Frank Küster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
netenv -- config:247 netenv/info_interfaces
netenv -- config:265 netenv/noconf
netenv -- config:267 netenv/twoconfs
Ganesan Rajagopal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
libslp1 -- config:12 libslp1/multicast
libslp1 -- config:21 libslp1/multicast-route
Giuseppe Sacco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
hylafax-server -- postinst:221 hylafax-server/attachment
Gopal Narayanan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
xplanet -- config:11 xplanet/Stable_Release
Guilherme de S. Pastore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
john -- config:20 john/no-replacement
Guillem Jover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
bochs -- config:10 bochs/bochsrc
Jamie Wilkinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
quake2-data -- config:66 quake2-data/shareinst
quake2-data -- config:70 quake2-data/fullinst
Javier Fernandez-Sanguino Pen~a <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
euro-support -- config:6 euro-support/configuring
snort -- config:105 snort/please_restart_manually
snort -- config:114 snort/config_parameters
snort-mysql -- config:57 snort-mysql/needs_db_config
snort-mysql -- config:67 snort-mysql/config_parameters
snort-mysql -- config:75 snort-mysql/please_restart_manually
snort-pgsql -- config:56 snort-pgsql/needs_db_config
snort-pgsql -- config:66 snort-pgsql/config_parameters
snort-pgsql -- config:75 snort-pgsql/please_restart_manually
tiger -- config:7 tiger/policy_adapt
user-es -- config:11 user-es/configure-es
user-euro-es -- config:10 user-euro-es/configure-euro-es
Jesus Climent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
rssh -- config:17 rssh/update-config-pre-2.2
Jon Marler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
qmail-src -- config:7 qmail-src/build
Josselin Mouette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
gtk2-engines-spherecrystal -- config:22 gtk2-engines/restart_gtk_apps_for_svg
Juan Manuel Garcia Molina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
facturalux -- config:10 facturalux/databasenote
Julien BLACHE <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mcelog -- postinst:21 mcelog/unusable
LENART Janos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mga-vid-common -- config:6 mga-vid-common/device_node_warning
Laszlo Boszormenyi (GCS) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
gradm2 -- config:9 gradm2/create_dev_grsec
Mario Lang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
filterproxy -- config:9 filterproxy/readme
Mark Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
leafnode -- config:92 leafnode/expireinfo
Martin Langhoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
twig -- config:7 twig/minimal-setup
twig -- config:12 twig/db-update
Martin Loschwitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
gidentd -- config:5 gidentd/default_daemon
Masayuki Hatta (mhatta) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
gtktrain -- config:7 gtktrain/get-train-schedule
Massimo Dal Zotto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
dpkg-www -- config:7 dpkg-www/update-apache-config
Matt Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
phpwiki -- postinst:284 phpwiki/notes/configupgrade
Mattia Dongili <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
cpufreqd -- config:17 cpufreqd/no_pm
cpufreqd -- config:26 cpufreqd/no_procfs_sysfs
Mediawiki Maintenance Team <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mediawiki1.5 -- config:21 mediawiki/upgrade
mediawiki1.7 -- config:29 mediawiki/upgrade-1d4
Michael Biebl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
libsctp1 -- config:43 lksctp-tools/nosctp
Michael Holzt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
gwhois -- config:7 gwhois/oldfiles
Morgon Kanter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
vtun -- config:8 vtun/passwords
OHURA Makoto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
ptex-jisfonts -- config:6 ptex-jisfonts/jisftconfig
Ola Lundqvist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
harden-clients -- config:8 harden-clients/plaintext
harden-servers -- config:8 harden-servers/plaintext
harden-servers -- config:10 harden-servers/inetd
harden-servers -- config:14 harden-servers/vncserver
harden-servers -- postinst:13 harden-servers/vncserver
Oliver Kurth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
masqmail -- config:29 masqmail/note_moved_tpl
masqmail -- config:176 masqmail/you_are_not_finished
Pascal Hakim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
blosxom -- config:10 blosxom/old_cgi_file
Paul Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
radioclk -- config:20 radioclk/configure_ntp
Paul Telford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
autolog -- config:4 autolog/note
Pawel Wiecek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mp3info -- config:12 mp3info/newmp3info
mush-src -- config:7 mush-src/build
Pedro Zorzenon Neto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
avrprog -- config:7 avrprog/suid_warning
Rene Engelhard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
muttprint -- config:34 muttprint/utf8
Rene Weber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
dailystrips -- config:9 dailystrips/warning-etcdefs
Sam Hartman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
ssh-krb5 -- config:18 ssh/ssh2_keys_merged
Simon Law <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wvdial -- config:66 wvdial/passphrases_mismatch
Stefan Hornburg (Racke) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
interchange -- config:77 interchange/usernoroot
interchange -- config:114 interchange/groupnoroot
Thomas Viehmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
dput -- config:11 dput/config-file-format
Tim Cutts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
am-utils -- config:34 am-utils/log-to-file
Torsten Landschoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
ddclient -- config:57 ddclient/modifiedconfig
ddclient -- config:161 ddclient/newconfigfmt
Torsten Werner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
ejabberd -- config:14 ejabberd/nomatch
Volker Ossenkopf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
workman -- config:38 workman/no_block_device
workman -- postinst:30 workman/cdrom_link_failed
workman -- postinst:40 workman/cdrom_gid_failed
workman -- postinst:49 workman/cdrom_perm_failed
xvmount -- config:27 xvmount/wrong_format
xvmount -- postinst:82 xvmount/convert_failed
xvmount -- postinst:114 xvmount/generate_failed
Víctor Pérez Pereira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
squidguard -- config:14 squidguard/db
Wolfgang Sourdeau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
lire -- config:57 lire/foundlocaluser
Wouter Verhelst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
logtool -- config:76 logtool/error-multiple
Xavier Luthi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
b2evolution -- config:35 b2evolution/apache
b2evolution -- config:40 b2evolution/install_semi_manual
b2evolution -- config:44 b2evolution/install_manual
b2evolution -- config:60 b2evolution/apache
b2evolution -- config:64 b2evolution/install_auto
Yven Johannes Leist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
mueller7-dict -- postinst:51 mueller7-dict/no-utf-8-locale
resolvconf maintainers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
resolvconf -- config:75 resolvconf/downup-interfaces
----- End forwarded message -----
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