On Mon, Oct 21, 2002 at 10:48:05PM -0600, Bob Proulx wrote: [ big snip ] > A package which is installed that sees a configuration file already > present in /etc _should_ avoid asking you questions and just use that > configuration file. However, each package will have varying quality > there and many will still ask you a zillion questions all over again. > (Some like am-utils will ask a bunch of questions which you must > answer, then after asking see the previous configuration file and only > then give you the opportunity to use the previous file discarding the > answers you were forced to answer but did not need to. Sigh.) In > general Debian packages are way to chatty and ask way too many > questions during an install. You just have to put up with it in many > cases. If you plan to reset /etc after doing all of the installs > again then what you answer probably won't matter since they will get > overwritten. > > Again, this is what I would do. YMMV. Good luck!
If the packages use debconf (unfortunately not all do, but...) then you
can avoid most of the questions by:
# export DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
which should ensure that you only get asked "critical" questions.
If you want to be really nasty, then:
# export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
which should ask you *no* questions (at least not through debconf).
(man 8 debconf for a more reliable source)
If you are going to merge /etc anyway, the latter might be what you want
HTH
--
Karl E. Jørgensen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.karl.jorgensen.com
==== Today's fortune:
Math is like love -- a simple idea but it can get complicated.
-- R. Drabek
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