On Tue, Jun 09, 2009 at 05:53:33PM +0200, Francesco Potorti` wrote: > >> I think that the current solution is not enough. The NEWS file sits > >> there, but people do not usually read the NEWS files of all packages > >> when they upgrade them. > > > >no, it doesn't have to just sit there. install apt-listchanges. > > I did not know about it, thanks. I installed it now, and I see that its > README speaks about changelog files, not NEWS files. If it really > displays all new changelog entries, I will get hundreds of lines each > time I upgrade, and this will not help with this issue (and would be > generally useless, IMO). >
it's configurable. tho I don't know what the defaults are. my /etc/apt/listchanges.conf looks like this: [apt] frontend=pager email_address=root confirm=1 save_seen=/var/lib/apt/listchanges.db which=both and it shows me NEWS entries via pager, I "q" out of that, then it shows me changelog entries, I "q" out of that, then it asks if I want to continue. and it also mails me. I'm guessing that if you change the "which=both" to "which=news" and remove the "email_address" line, it will just show you the NEWS entries and ask you to confirm. > >there is no other clean way to do this (afaik). > > There are some packages which occasionally require user intervention > during upgrade, by displaying a warning through debconf. For example, > when parts of the libc are changed which require restarting daemons, a > notice is displayed, and the user is required to confirm. Or if you try > to uninstall the currently running kernel package, you are required to > confirm. But i remember having occasionally seen others, maybe samba a > long time ago when incompatible configuration changes where introduced. > > These are very rare occurrences: I argue that passing to the new > storebackup version is one of these rare occurrences. I do not know > what are the official guidelines in this case, though. I do not know that there are official guidelines for this, tho I've never seen a package do this on upgrade..it seems like this is something that shouldn't be done, though, and NEWS is the correct place for this. The developers reference says this: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/best-pkging-practices.html#bpp-news-debian "Important news about changes in a package can also be put in NEWS.Debian files." and "It is better than using debconf notes since it is less annoying and the user can go back and refer to the NEWS.Debian file after the install." -- _________________________ Ryan Niebur ryanrya...@gmail.com
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