[Debconf-devel] Bug#367497: debconf: With noninteractive frontend, debconf should print "error" templates to stderr

Frank Küster frank at debian.org
Tue May 16 12:49:12 UTC 2006


Package: debconf
Version: 1.4.30.13
Severity: normal

Using a template with type "error" usually means that installation will
not proceed successfully (otherwise it seems like abuse of the type).
In the noninteractive frontend, such messages are not displayed on the
terminal.  They are sent by mail, but on many systems no mail is
configured, or reading mail has to be done on a different system, or
similar.  

Therefore users who encounter a problem that results in a debconf error
and a (config or postinst) script failing are left without information
how to fix the problem.  As I understood it, telling people how to fix
or debug the error  is exactly the purpose of the "error" type.

Therefore I suggest that debconf should print messages of type "error"
to stderr.

See also

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.general/100647/focus=100652

Regards, Frank

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (99, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.16-1-686
Locale: LANG=de_DE at euro, LC_CTYPE=de_DE at euro (charmap=ISO-8859-15)

Versions of packages debconf depends on:
ii  debconf-i18n               1.4.30.13     full internationalization support 
ii  perl-base                  5.8.4-8sarge4 The Pathologically Eclectic Rubbis

-- debconf information:
* debconf/priority: medium
* debconf/frontend: Kde

-- 
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)





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