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script for translator management



Hello,

I think we need a script for managing translators in /servers/ and a policy
amandment to the Debian policy document, so all subsequent packages that
provide translators for this directory have a consistent interface to the
user.

As far as I can see, /servers/ is reserved for hooking in system
translators, possibly in a subdirectory for grouping. Will it only be used
by the Hurd itself, or is it true that additional translators (not in the
main Hurd source) will hook in there? If the former is the case, a special
script may be overkill.

The idea is that a package should honour configuration to the translators
(like socket/2), but be able to update to new syntax et cetera if the user
has not chnaged anything. This corresponds to Debian config file handling by
dpkg.

A script would take a settrans argument line as argument, and optionally some
more arguments which control how hard the script should try to get the
translator in place (killing active translators etc). The script will check
if the translatar has changed from the previous version provided by the
package (if any), and see if the user has changed the translator (using
showtrans).

Neither user nor package changed the translator:
 If the package is installed, translator is set. If the package is updated,
 no action is taken.

Package changed translator, user not:
 New translator is installed.

Only user changed translator, package not:
 No action.

Both changed:
 Query user for action to take.
 Available will be several possibilities (installing new translator, no
 action, etc).

This only effects the passive translator. The active translator will left
alone or killed or even forced to die, depending on additional options in
the package script or on request of the user. The details have to be worked
out (I have detailed information from Roland about how this works).

All translators below /servers/ should be managed by this script. A link
like /servers/crash will be managed by update-alternatives.

Comments?
Marcus

-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org   finger brinkmd@ 
Marcus Brinkmann              GNU    http://www.gnu.org     master.debian.org
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de                        for public  PGP Key
http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Marcus.Brinkmann/       PGP Key ID 36E7CD09


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