On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 11:26 PM, Nico Kadel-Garcia <nka...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 8:05 PM, Tom H <tomh0...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> This is where the one of the major differences between the RPM packaging and >>> the DEB packaging shows itself. Debian (and Debian-derivatives) take >>> advantage of the possibility of interactive response in a DEB to deal with >>> real upgrade issues; RPMs are not supposed to do any interaction with the >>> user in any of the package's scriptlets. The DEB scripts have wide latitude >>> in what they can do, and have several powerful tools available for use in >>> the script. It does make complete unattended upgrading somewhat difficult, >>> as it prompts the user for lots and lots of things and seemingly random >>> times; IOW, it's not a 'start it and let it run overnight' thing without >>> effort. >> >> You can add "%pre" and/or "%post" scripts requiring user-interaction >> to an SRPM's spec file and package/repackage an RPM but it's very much >> frowned upon. You won't get a "nice" debconf dialog but you can >> _PROBABLY_ so the same thing. > > If I caught you doing it in a package I worked with or supported, I'd > get cross. One might check for the presence of a 'tty' and act > accordingly, but RPM updates are really supposed to be unattended. > > Mind you, I do like the various 'dpkg-reconfigure' tools from our > Debian friends, the "reset the MySQL admin password" and "configure > smarthost behavior for your mail server". Someone spent a lot of time > making those work well.
If I were caught by my employer doing this, they'd more than "cross." :) The debconf concept/infrastructure is good except in tow aspects. One, preseed is convoluted because you're basically answering debconf dialog boxes via text. Two, when I first used Debian, I ran an "apt-get upgrade" or an "apt-get dist-upgrade", went off to do something else, and later returned to that terminal expecting the upgrade to be finished only to find it stuck at a debconf "yes/no" dialog box. A frustrating experience for someone used to kickstart and yum.