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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] for public PGP Key http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Marcus.Brinkmann/ PGP Key ID 36E7CD09
