On 25/08/15 09:44, Ole Streicher wrote: > What is the best way to keep these data up to date in Debian? An > automated process as written in the pull request [1] is probably not the > right way, since it is a potential privacy violation.
Hi Ole, I wouldnt say that it' automatically bad to download current data on a regular basis, as long as the system administrator *agreed* to do automated downloads / have the computer talk to the outside world. >From a system administrator's point of view, the following would be all right to me: * When you install the package, debconf asks if you want the automated upgrades, preferably telling me how often its going to download them and information about the source. (And I know I can always change my mind later with dpkg --reconfigure packagename, although this could be explicitly stated in the dialog). Take a look at "dpkg-reconfigure popularity-contest" for an example. * The choice is stored in /etc/packagename.conf or similar. A comment informing that "dpkg-reconfigure packagename" is the easy way to edit the file might be nice. * The package installs a cronjob that does loads the configuration file, and depening on whether auto-downloads are allowed, does the actual downloading/verification/installing of the files or simply does nothing. Since this rests on the system administrator being informed about what the system will do, and giving an explicit OK, I would not consider it a privacy violation. I don't know how complicated this is to implement, but do you think it could be a good design rationale? - Danny