On Sun, 24 Mar 2013 01:09:43 +0100 Serafeim Zanikolas wrote: > Hi guys,
Hi Serafeim (and sorry for the very late follow-up), > > Attached a proof-of-concept for the advanced use case (in which the user > actually wants to review which buggy packages to pin or upgrade). Consider > this as a basis for further discussion, rather than something anywhere near a > working patch. [...] I tested it by running it a few times. I understand that it's just a proof-of-concept script, but, well, it feels a little limited in its user interaction: I mean, can we present a multiple-action choice to the user (via debconf)? The current apt-listbugs text user interface displays the bugs that affect the installation/upgrade and then offers the user the following possible choices: * go on * go on and permanently mark the bugs as ignored * stop everything * display one bug log * pin some or all the packages * mark a bug as ignored * open a browser to display one bug log How can we do something similar via debconf without forcing the user to go through a tree of multiple successive screens (that would feel like a horrible call center menu system: "dial 1 to learn about our fantastic promotional offers, dial 2 to receive commercial assistance, ...")? > Going forward from here, one possibility would be for the apt-listbugs ruby > script to invoke the debconf script (passing on the package/bug num/bug title > info and getting back the user reply, via a tempfile or something along those > lines). To be frank, I am not too enthusiastic about the idea to let a Ruby program invoke a POSIX shell script in order to get a user interface... If we have to implement a debconf interface for apt-listbugs, I would strongly prefer that it be done directly in Ruby. > > One issue with the debconf approach is that you can't fire up a browser to > lookup a bug report before making the pin/upgrade decision (something that's > possible with the current non-debconf based interaction). You also can't ^Z > the debconf screen to do so manually. Any ideas about working around this? This looks like a severe limitation, if confirmed... > > Another issue that should be straightforward: use debconf in postinst to ask > the user to choose between newbie and advance use (ie. whether one should go > through the above dialog on every invocation, or let apt-listbugs upgrade only > non-rc-buggy packages without asking) -- defaulting to newbie mode? This is much more similar to what is usually done with debconf, and should not be hard in itself, I think... What puzzles me is all the rest, as I explained above. Unfortunately I cannot dedicate time to the issue, for the time being. Maybe after the release of wheezy? Hopefully, not *too* long after? Bye. -- http://www.inventati.org/frx/frx-gpg-key-transition-2010.txt New GnuPG key, see the transition document! ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82 3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE
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