[Fedora-packaging] printing textual messages in %post etc.?

[Fernando Nasser]

Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> On 21.12.2006 09:06, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
>> Do the GuideLines/Does the FPC have an opinion on rpms intentionally
>> printing out textual messages during installs?
>> At least, I could not find a corresponding paragraph in the GuideLines.
> 
> Hmm, I think we discussed this some weeks/months ago and I think the 
> consensus was that "RPM files should not output anything during 
> (un)install". But I can't find it in the guidelines just yet -- maybe 
> was forgotten again... (or I'm to blind to find it)
> 
>> I don't have a strong opinion on this and actually am ambivalent.
>> On one hand, such messages can be helpful to users.
>> On the other hand, in general, rpm-installs should be silent as much as
>> possible.
> 
> /me strongly votes for silent. Yes, having "something" that sends notes 
> like the one from tripwire to the sysadmin somehow would be helpfull. 
> But %pre{,un},%post{,un} are the wrong place for it IMHO as it often 
> scrolls away quickly unnoticed and is not even shown in pirut and other 
> tools afaik.
> 

They also mess up automatic installation/upgrading systems output 
unnecessarily.  +1 for only warnings and/or errors.

Not however that people will try and fix this by redirecting the whole 
output to /dev/null , so not even errors or warnings will show up ;-)
Perhaps a footnote that that is not the preferred way of fixing it.

Regards,
Fernando