On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 02:13:43 +0100, Tore Anderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> These packages are already de facto buggy. I can't imagine that
I beg too differ. These packages are following policy, which
states the current practivce that maintainer scripts may rely on a
controlling terminal being present.
> it would matter to a user whether or no the failure resulted from a
> spurious promise from policy or a slack maintainer -- the
It is not a spurious promise -- this is accpeted
practice. Violating this expectation results in unspecified
behaviour.
> maintainer script will fail, and that's all that matters.
And the answer is that the user should not do installs in a
manner which results in there not being a controlling terminal.
> There is however no doubt that this proposal will make a number of
> packages instantly de jure buggy. That said, do note that it will
An thus such a radical change is beyond the scope of the
policy process. First, one needs a rationale as to why this change
is desirable, and then a plan as to how things are going to be
transitioned. Frankly, I do not see the benefits of this change; I
am entirely willing to be educated.
> only be a "should" policy violation, so it will not justify any
> bugs of release-critical severity.
That does not matter. Policy is not normally changed to make
a significant portion of -packages instantly buggy. If this is
desired, the first stage is to recommend the package not to depend on
a tty, and then , after the next release cycle, move it to a should
state, and only then make it a requirement. If this seems slow,
well, yes, it is.
> Another thing worth noting is that the by far most popular method
> for prompting users, debconf, already does the requred checking.
That is a point in favour, which may allow us to accelerate
the transition, since debconf is now the standard mechanism (still
not a must directive).
Why should we not just say "Don't install without a
controlling tty for dpkg, as that is not supported", reflecting
current practice? What are the advantages of this change?
manoj
--
A man was reading The Canterbury Tales one Saturday morning, when his
wife asked "What have you got there?" Replied he, "Just my cup and
Chaucer."
Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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