Zac Medico posted on Fri, 01 Jul 2016 08:35:26 -0700 as excerpted: >> But if you genuinely think this is a good idea, and someone else on the >> team does too, I won't oppose it. We should make sure that we strongly >> discourage its usage for regular users. Perhaps your suggested manpage >> addition already does -- I don't know. > > Yeah, I think the warning message that I've put in the man patch is > pretty good: > >> This option is intended to be used only with great caution, >> since it is possible for it to make nonsensical configuration changes >> which may lead to system breakage. Therefore, it is advisable to use >> ---ask together with this option.
Perhaps rename the option so it makes perfectly clear the possible consequences? Something like --autounmask-breakme, or --auto-breakme ? Or alternatively, if there are other arguably dangerous options now or possible in the future, put them all under another option, --breakme, such that if that option isn't there, the otherwise dangerous options only print a warning and die. Then people can read the manpage if they really want to know what it does, but people who haven't, aren't as likely to blunder into it due to the stereotypical "rm -rf .*" type advice. -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman
