Package: watchdog Version: 5.9-1 Severity: minor Tags: patch Important informations are missing in the long package description; the short description is (or can be) misleading too. This package/program can either be used as a software watchdog and/or can be used to "pet" a hardware watchdog. It isn't just a software watchdog (can be used otherwise -> bad short description) and the functionality to pet hardware watchdogs should be mentioned (at least) in the long description.
The new package description in 5.10-1 and later is still unsatisfactory in my opinion. It *really* should be mentioned that this package also provides an opportunity to "pet" hardware watchdogs. Here is my suggestion: short description: ################## System health checker that also trigger kernel watchdogs and may pet a hardware watchdog if available ################## long description: ################# The watchdog program writes to /dev/watchdog every ten seconds. If the device is opened but not written to within a minute, the machine will reboot. This feature is available when the kernel is built with 'software watchdog' support (standard in Debian kernels) or if the machine is equipped with a hardware watchdog. If a hardware watchdog is available, this package can also be used to "pet" it. The ability to reboot will depend on the state of the machine and interrupts if the kernel software watchdog is used. The watchdog tool itself runs several health checks and acts accordingly if the system is not in a good shape. ################# Best regards, Martin Teufel -- System Information: Debian Release: 6.0.4 APT prefers stable-updates APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable') Architecture: i386 (i586) Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-geode Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE (charmap=ISO-8859-1) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Versions of packages watchdog depends on: ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.36.1 Debian configuration management sy ii libc6 2.11.3-3 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib ii lsb-base 3.2-23.2squeeze1 Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip ii udev 164-3 /dev/ and hotplug management daemo watchdog recommends no packages. watchdog suggests no packages. -- Configuration Files: /etc/watchdog.conf changed [not included] -- debconf information excluded -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
