Preservation of system state considered harmful

[Michael Paoli]

I forget the precise options/levels, but I'm pretty darn certain:
I set it to ask the lowest level of questions
I set it to ask me again, questions it asked me before
I set it to use text (readline?) (better for logging), rather than menu style

Fortunatley these things are quite configurable :-)

Also, when config files differ, I typically set up a new one, by
using the new maintainer's version as a base/reference, and then
merging in my customization/configuration stuff I want to preserve.
For larger/more complex config files, sometimes I'll compare my
existing old version to the maintainer's version from the old package,
to better isolate my changes, and use that information in due consideration
when then taking new maintainer's version and, as appropriate, working my
modifications back in.

Yeah, it's a bit more of a pain, but it's not all that much more work.
Most of the questions can just be answered with defaults - but at least
one gets presented with the questions and options :-)

And most of my config files aren't radically different from the defaults,
so merging in relevant changes isn't too big of a chore.

Scalable?  Probably not *directly*, ... but indirectly.  I'd think for a
scalable infrastructure, one would run through the stuff carefully with high
manual attention on test/prototype system, review, check, test., etc., then
roll that out to the 'clones' - likely with far fewer questions asked on the
'clones', and then push out the "master" config files (with any required
per-host changes required).  Anyway, I'd think a solution *roughly* like
that would be quite scalable (would probably also have to work out some
details of the sequencing of package upgrades, service start/stop/reload,
and pushing out new configuration files - and optimal sequencing may vary
depending on the particular package/software).

>From my system log 2003-07-12 entry:
reconfigured debconf via:
dpkg-reconfigure debconf
primarily to:
ask low priority questions
ask all questions again
use readline interface

... and that was on system I'd received brand new on 2003-07-02

Quoting Ian Zimmerman <itz@buug.org>:

> Sean> it is asked by dpkg and has nothing to do with debconf.
> 
> Rick> "man 7 debconf-devel" seems to agree with my recollection that it
> Rick> has a lot to do with debconf.  Am I badly misreading, or does
> Rick> debconf store and replay "config scripts" for previously-given
> Rick> answers to "any questions necessary to configure the package"?
> 
> Debconf questions are those asked with a semi-graphical frontend
> (dialog, by default, which means curses-based, with blue background).
> Mostly this is configured so -=all=- these questions are asked in a
> batch before dpkg even unpacks the debs (it's announced by
> "Preconfiguring packages...").  The conffile questions, OTOH, are asked
> by dpkg itself during the unpacking.  Bird of a different feather, or
> something like that.