#include <hallo.h> * Brian May [Sat, Dec 07 2002, 12:40:12PM]: > It seems to be set for a "pbuilder login" operation on the stable > version of pbuilder. > > So do you think debian-image should check the value of DEBIAN_FRONTEND? > > Sounds like a good idea to me...
I think we should document this in the policy and force maintainers, following this simple rule. When DEBIAN_FRONTEND value is Non-Interactive, no question should interrupt the installation process. Really none. Take the kernel postinst, for example. It rely on some keywords in /etc/kernel-img.conf conf, and does not care about DEBIAN_FRONTEND. This is a thing that should be changed. Imagine following solution: DEBIAN_FRONTEND is set to Non-Interactive. kernel postinst reads that value. If the keywords in /etc/kernel-img.conf are not set, does not ask the user but makes some autodetection. An additional variable in, say, /etc/setup-profile (eg. keyword: default-desktop) does tell the kernel-postinst to use the default installation settings (lilo as bootloader, no additional boot floppy). This concept could be expanded to all packages that use direct console interaction, where 99.9% percent of decissions can be guessed automaticaly, based on some profile-keyword. Same for the debconf questions with priority=critical. Show me one such setting where the answer cannot be determined automaticaly. Gruss/Regards, Eduard. -- Möchten Sie Ihre Festplatten formatieren? [J]a [N]atürlich [A]ber sicher
