Re: Debian package management with cfengine

[Yaroslav Halchenko]

Nice. Thanx

I'm not trying to don't use debconf at all because I'm afraid it might
leave some packages in unusable state.  I rather copy its
parameters from the server where I run installation manually, ie
providing answers to the questions in interactive mode.
Then in cfengine on the nodes I

copy:
/var/cache/debconf/config.dat    dest=/var/cache/debconf/config.dat.main 
mode=400 server=$(etcserver)

editfiles:
{ /etc/debconf.conf
      LocateLineMatching "Config: configdb.*"
      IncrementPointer "2"
      BeginGroupIfNoMatch "Frontend: .*"
      IncrementPointer "-1"
      InsertLine "Frontend: noninteractive"
      EndGroup

      LocateLineMatching ".*/var/cache/debconf/config.dat.*"
      IncrementPointer   "2"

      BeginGroupIfNoMatch "# cfengine2 - 110603.*"
      IncrementPointer "-2"
      InsertLine ""
      InsertLine "# cfengine2 - 110603  yoh@ fallback database from ravana"
      InsertLine "Name: configravana"
      InsertLine "Driver: File"
      InsertLine "Mode: 400"
      InsertLine "Backup: false"
      InsertLine "Required: false"
      InsertLine "Readonly: true"
      InsertLine "Filename: /var/cache/debconf/config.dat.main"

      DefineInGroup "AddedDebconf"
      EndGroup

      LocateLineMatching "Stack: config.*"
      AppendToLineIfNotContains ", configravana"
    }


This way is not perfect but it might reduce required configuration for
many packages.


On Mon, Mar 21, 2005 at 10:24:28AM -0600, Brendan Strejcek wrote:
> Moritz Bunkus wrote:

> > This did work rather well with joe, but I ran into some problems with
> > another package and its config files. Therefore I'd like some input on
> > how you are doing package management.

> A large effort is needed to actually make Debian packages install
> noninteractively. DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive is not enough.

> I also use these apt options:

> DPkg::Options {"--force-confold";};

> (That is the contents of my /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/30dpkg_force_confold.)

> This is important if, for example, you are upgrading a package and a
> config file has been modified. Even if DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
> has been set, it will wait for admin input unless you specify
> --force-confold or --force-confnew.

> I try to deactivate debconf as much as possible, as I use centralized
> means to configure software. For example, I comment out this line from
> the apt config (which is default, I think):

> //DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";};

> You can also configure some behavior in /etc/debconf.conf. I like:

> Frontend: noninteractive
> Admin-Email:

> Setting Admin-Email to the empty string makes it so debconf does not
> mail lots of annoying (and useless) info when running in noninteractive
> mode.

> I still have not found a nice way to wrap dpkg due to the ridiculous
> number of states a package can be in.

> -- Brendan


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-- 
Yaroslav Halchenko
Research Assistant, Psychology Department, Rutgers-Newark
Office: (973) 353-5440x263 | FWD: 82823 | Fax: (973) 353-1171
Student  Ph.D. @ CS Dept. NJIT, Master @ CS Dept. UNM