-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Ok... Just some comments.
I just got some crude debian autoinstall mechanism running for my organisation, which does a dpkg -install from a perl expect script, which scans the output of dpkg for keywords which it reacts to. I would have liked a more beautiful approach. This one looks better. In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> you write: [trimmed freely] >From: Ian Jackson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: debian-devel@lists.debian.org, debian-policy@lists.debian.org >Subject: Re: Proposal: Automatic query servicing for dpkg installation scripts >Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 13:35:41 +0100 > >Yes, we do need something like this. > >Properties that it needs to have include, in no particular order: > >1. Questions may need to be `independent' of any particular package. > >2. Only a particular package can determine which questions need to be >asked in what order; in particular, following questions can depend on >the previous ones. This means that we can't specify the questions in >advance in a file. Instead, we have to put the information in >command-line arguments to the query program. It seems to me that we get very long commandlines this way. >3. Questions should have a `name' that is textual (not numeric), and >is separate from the prompt string. Given 1. the name should probably >have a hierarchical structure. Given 2. there needs to be a way to >put arbitrary `parameters' into the `name'. > >4. There should be a way to specify how `important' it is that a >question be asked, and an environment variable or something to specify >how willing we are to prompt, so that we can tune the level of >prompting. There should be a mode which *never* asks interactive questions. Over here, I give a boot-disk to someone who has an new machine (or an old one which needs a reinstall) and tell him to put it in the drive and reboot, and take it out when he is asked to. Then he gets a new installation from a saved and tested copy of debian. Some of the people whom I give such a disk are not able to answer questions about the installation, nor do I want them to answer them. There are some reasons not to use a canned diskimage. One is that I would need some editing of system files anyway for differing hostnames and such. Second is that I would have to recreate the diskimage for every minor update. I might automate that recreation to the point that is not more work than saving a tested copy of debian, but that automation would be at least as much work as the auto-install. Third is that I want to keep open a way to auto-adapt to differing hardware to autoinstall X-servers or mouses or other things which can be detected. Fourth is that it is the 'right' way. ;-) >5. The interface should be suitable for changing the UI later (eg, >plain-text, fullscreen text, X or whatever). > >6. The database format used to cache answers should be editable by >humans. > >7. The query program should be the same as the retrieve-question >program, so that the database of previous questions acts as a cache >for the user. >8. If the query program cannot prompt but the arguments say it needs >to then it should indicate this with a nonzero exit status, which will >(hopefully) cause the script to bomb out. > >9. Valid responses should be specified by regexp (preferably a >reasonably fully-featured regexp like a Perl one) not a glob. I am not sure whether this is the right direction. Maybe something like X-resources are better. >10. Metacharacters in prompts and data should work completely >correctly. How should metacharacters in data work? I would tend to put the 'answer database' into the environment. For example reserve Variables of the form DPKG_ANSWER_* to answers of configuration questions. That would have the effect that scripts which do not ask any questions would not be affected. And it would work with minimal changes to dpkg. I hope this reaches everyone I want to reach, I do not read debian-policy yet, so I did not mail there. cu AW -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBNYUkEMCaUV487z8dAQHEDgP/SWyZOjm10vFGXBnE58lWvEFTpz+eGyur Q0s6D0NU83fmG+Qhsi7YVDTHUUcf+WnvgEUNaLPM8xGI26rh/5+0ftsJxWM62A+o YuSuP+d9Z94JRO2116tzkPkS8Kt+h2nsMQPFI+7dYPyJM4me7T4iTZdXRpHTn98L 0yNy43LG+6Y= =Yngp -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- <ThePhonk> *tueteKlammernUeberVariableAuskipp* Dereferenzier Dich, Du +Miststueck! -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
