On Thu, Jul 05, 2007 at 02:26:36PM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote: > > Yes, libc6(\.1)* does include such non-debconf prompting code for this > > reason, so I think the exception is needed.
> Several packages contain such code (including postfix, IIRC). What I was > never sure about was whether it was actually necessary or not. To date, I have not been aware of a scenario in which debconf would have been broken and unusable in the middle of an upgrade as a result of being unpacked but not yet configured; but the number of packages that would be rendered virtually-essential by libc6 depending on debconf is significant -- debconf-english, debconf-i18n, liblocale-gettext-perl, libtext-iconv-perl, libtext-wrapi18n-perl, libtext-charwidth-perl would all have to be usable when unpacked but not configured, AFAICS, in order for debconf to be guaranteed-usable in unpacked-only state, and given that glibc needs to interact with the user in the preinst in some cases, this would become a case of circular pre-depends among essential packages. (libc6 pre-depends on debconf for preinst use; debconf pre-depends on debconf-i18n | debconf-english to ensure usability when unpacked only, by enforcing unpack ordering; several of the other modules depend on libc6.) So yes, I don't see any way around this exception for glibc. postfix would have no excuse, though. -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.debian.org/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
