On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 10:38:10AM -0700, Theo de Raadt wrote: > > .It Fl M > > Show the install-message file (if any) for each package. > > +If any step not documented in the manual must be taken before a package > > +can be used, this file will often mention it. > > That is an attempt to entirely push the problem under the table. > > The default message should be relevant. Noone will use special > options to go look for relevant information. As an option, it would > be much more realistic if -M did not EXIST. > > The basics + by-hand-setup information for most things is 2 lines > long, because it points at a file. That is what should be printed > everytime. Making people go dig for the important information they > need is retarded.
Yeah, you're right, and that corresponds to what I was thinking. Giving further messages to people such as "oh, you also need to look there" is stupid. I'm of the opinion I'm going to consider INSTALL messages as part of the description (a part that gets shown during installation), and show them whenever we ask for the description (unless we're in the "special" programmer's mode that shows stuff in a way not suitable for humans). That said, as we discussed already, I'm quite aware that package tools are often too wordy, and I hope to be able to address that in the not so distant future. One thing people can definitely do to help is track down useless verbiage: DESCR don't have to mention obvious things. Neither do MESSAGES. If you can remove useless stuff, then USEFUL things will jump at the face of the user, and that's always a good thing. ;-)
