On Mon, Aug 30, 1999 at 04:28:04PM -0400, Ben Collins wrote: > > As the subject line says, these two options (--remove and --purge) first > > make a short pause (accessing the database?), and after that their options > > are parsed. I noticed that when I accidentally typed "dpkg -r", and it took > > some time for dpkg to return the error. This is inconsistent with the > > install option (--install), which parses the options (and reports the error > > if there are not arguments) instantly. And it is annoying, to have to wait. > > > > Also, there should be a short alias for the purge command, and both > > "-p" and "-P" are available. > > I agree with the rest of this, but making a short, easy option to purge a > package is bad. If you accidentally -r a package, it can be easily fixed > with a reinstall and all configuration files will be kept. If you > accidentally --purge, then you could have some problems. Force people to > know exactly what they are doing in this extreme instance.
And people who are able to type "--purge" automagically know exactly what they are doing? I don't think so. Also, typing "mke2fs hdXX" (while in /dev directory) is far more dangerous than a "dpkg --purge libc6", yet, it is shorter and arguably easier to type. Careless people shouldn't be allowed into a super-user shell, full stop. When they do come in there, they will trip on something one way or another. Even if dpkg needs to be foolproof[1], adding this new alias (-p or -P) will decrease dpkg foolproofness by an irrelevant percentage. > I would say that the short pause before -r actually starts removing files > is a good thing since it gives time to say "oh shit!" and hist ctrl-c, Probably. But a short pause before it starts parsing command line arguments is stupid (or at least I see no sense in doing that). > but it will soon be irrelevant as cpu's and disks get much faster. Unfortunately (although just on newer computers). Maybe there we should force a pause when that time comes? Something to ponder about... :) [1] "if you make program foolproof, only fools will use it" -- enJoy -*/\*- don't even try to pronounce my first name
