Thanks for the prompt reply; discussion follows.
Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Jan 2021, Trent W. Buck wrote:
>> A minimum recipe to reproduce this is:
>>
>> $ mmdebstrap sid sid.tar.zst \
>> --components='main contrib non-free' \
>> --include=intel-microcode \
>> --essential-hook='>$1/etc/default/intel-microcode echo
>> IUCODE_TOOL_INITRAMFS=yes IUCODE_TOOL_SCANCPUS=no' \
>> --verbose
>> [...]
>> Setting up intel-microcode (3.20201118.1) ...
>>
>> Configuration file '/etc/default/intel-microcode'
>> ==> File on system created by you or by a script.
>> ==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
>> What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
>> Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
>> N or O : keep your currently-installed version
>> D : show the differences between the versions
>> Z : start a shell to examine the situation
>> The default action is to keep your current version.
>
> That is a DPKG prompt, about a changed "conffile". You need to tell
> dpkg what it should do when it detects that a "conffile" has been
> changed [prior to installation of a package]. Keep in mind dpkg also
> prompts for this when a package upgrade changes a conffile that has been
> locally modified.
>
>> ALLEGEDLY when DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive (which mmdebstrap does),
>> that prompt should not appear, and method [A] should Just Work.
>
> dpkg is not debconf (which responds to DEBIAN_FRONTEND), it is far more
> low-level / basic.
>
>> I can't see anything in /var/lib/dpkg/info/*microcode*inst that
>> looks relevant, so maybe this is a dpkg issue?
>
> It is an issue on how mmdebstrap and other such utilities interact with
> dpkg and user-modified conffiles, yes. And it affects every package
> that uses conffiles.
Thanks, I did not realize DEBIAN_FRONTEND= only affected debconf.
> Your options are in the dpkg manpage, and I don't know how you'd tell
> mmdebstrap how to specify them.
OK, I think you are referring to --force-{confold,confnew,confdef}.
If I add force-confold to /etc/dpkg.cfg.d/blah it does indeed bypass this
issue.[0]
(force-confold feels a bit brute-force -- since there's only a single
"apt-get install" call, it applies to everything -- but I guess it's
no worse than DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive.)
I'll move this over to the mmdebstrap package so the mmdebstrap
maintainer can set dpkg force-confXXX next to
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive --- or at least document the issue in
the mmdebstrap manpage.
(Maybe this is already documented for debootstrap in
installation-guide-amd64 and I just never found it?)
[0]
twb@not-omega:~$ mmdebstrap sid sid.tar.zst --components='main contrib
non-free' --include=amd64-microcode
'--essential-hook=>$1/etc/default/amd64-microcode echo
AMD64UCODE_INITRAMFS=yes' --verbose --dpkgopt=force-confold
--customize-hook='cat $1/etc/default/amd64-microcode'
[...]
I: running --essential-hook in shell: sh -c
'>$1/etc/default/amd64-microcode echo AMD64UCODE_INITRAMFS=yes' exec
/tmp/mmdebstrap._D0TIGFL66
[...]
Setting up amd64-microcode (3.20191218.1) ...
Configuration file '/etc/default/amd64-microcode'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
==> Using current old file as you requested.
[...]
I: running --customize-hook in shell: sh -c 'cat
$1/etc/default/amd64-microcode' exec /tmp/mmdebstrap._D0TIGFL66
AMD64UCODE_INITRAMFS=yes
[...]
I: success in 36.8867 seconds
