Re: problems with `dselect'

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

* Robert Millan writes:
> On Fri, Jun 28, 2002 at 04:59:48PM +0200, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>> * Robert Millan writes:
>> > Dselect should use settrans and friends directly when the __GNU__
>> > macro is defined, and mount otherwise (for both GNU/Linux and GNU/*BSD).
>> 
>> One shouldn't use the __GNU__ macro.  Instead fix the scripts in dpkg
>> ([dpkg]/methods) or make our mount command more GNU/Linux friendly.  I
>> would suggest fixing the mount command.  It probably just doesn't
>> support some silly option that dselect wants to use.

> Why? the normal way to access a filesystem on GNU is settrans, not mount.
> mount is just a hack that could be useful when programs like it,
> but if it needs fixing anyway, supporting settrans would be best
> (and less prone to errors occasionated by changes in mount syntax)

Yes, but considering there are more scripts that use mount than
settrans it will be easier to fix any bugs in mount, you will fix all
those scripts in one go.  The syntax of mount doesn't change that
often either, it is just that our mount is an serious hack. :)

But if someone wants to fix dselect's method script, fine by me.  But
don't use __GNU__, instead check if the system has an appropriate
mount command by checking if settrans is available on the system.

Cheers,
-- 
Alfred M. Szmidt