Could you all please consider this suggestion for a standard post-installation read-me file?
This is something I was reminded of on the Debian-Java list: ------- Start of forwarded message ------- ... Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 00:16:39 -0400 (EDT) From: Daniel Barclay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ... To: debian-java@lists.debian.org, debian-devel@lists.debian.org ... [slightly edited] ... You know, I wonder if automatic package installation has gone slightly too far. I think something has been forgotten: pointing users to whatever they might need and/or want to do after installing a package. When you install from a tar file, there's README file. After the installation instructions, it usually mentions what you can do next. (E.g., it typically mentions the commands provided be the software; whether the documentation is manual pages, info pages, other files; etc.) On the other hand, when you install a package, once the package is installed, you're kind of left with nothing. Think about it: You find out about a package and install it on your system. Now what? What do you do next? How do you know which commands or user-level files it provides? There no standard /usr/doc/<package>/README (or README.debian) that you can count on. There is nothing (standard) pointing to commands or user-level files provided by the package, or pointing to documentation. (When there is a file /usr/doc/<package>/README, it's usually from the original source release and doesn't apply to Debian's binary packaging of the software.) Maybe each Debian package should have a standard post-installation README file that: - mentions what the package provides (e.g., commands available to be run, daemons started, files (e.g., debian-doc) provided.) (Note that the name of a package isn't always related the command(s) it provides, so a mention of commands or files x and y from package z would frequently be helpful. ) - refers to configuration options that you're likely to want to change or confirm (I'm not suggested much redundancy with other documentation; just pointers to things that are especially import or that users are especially likely to want to know about up front.) - points to relevant documentation (manual, info, or web pages loaded by the package, or on-line documentation, etc.) (Because documentation be provided in many forms, it is scattered about and the user has to check many possibilities (e.g., man <command name>, man <package name>, man <config. file name>, info <command name>, /usr/doc/<package name>/.../*.html, /usr/doc/<package_name>/*.txt.gz, http://..., etc. A standard starting place would be a lot more convenient and efficient.) - * points out significant Debian-specific changes to the package (so if you knew the unpackaged version of the software, you can know what's different (I'm thinking of Debian's Netscape wrapper that wasted a lot of my time because its changed behavior wasn't documented)) Generally, the post-installation README file would be a guide to getting on with using the just-loaded package that could be found easily in a known location (/usr/doc/share/<package>/README or .../DocRoot or somewhere). Daniel -- Daniel Barclay [EMAIL PROTECTED]
