svn commit: r228192 - head/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts

[John Baldwin]

On 12/2/11 4:44 AM, Joel Dahl wrote:
> On 02-12-2011  0:38, Ken Smith wrote:
>> Author: kensmith
>> Date: Fri Dec  2 00:38:47 2011
>> New Revision: 228192
>> URL: http://svn.freebsd.org/changeset/base/228192
>>
>> Log:
>>    Add a screen that asks if the user would like to enable crash dumps,
>>    giving them a very brief description of the trade-offs.  Whether the
>>    user opts in or out add an entry to what will become /etc/rc.conf
>>    explaining what dumpdev is and how to turn on/off crash dumps.  The folks
>>    who handle interacting with users submitting PRs have asked for this.
>
> Hmm. Two things I'd like to bring up:
>
> * Not specifically aimed at this commit, but my recommendation
>    would be that we keep bsdinstall as simple as possible: installing FreeBSD
>    should require a minimum amount of keystrokes. I realise this is just one
>    more screen, but I hope we don't turn bsdinstall into a configuration
>    utility where you can disable/enable just about anything in rc.conf.
>
> * Mentioning future system crashes during installation feels awkward. Is that
>    really what we want? I understand the problem and how this helps us with
>    debugging, but this is like saying to users that what they are installing
>    is unstable and that it'll eventuelly crash and die. I know we discussed
>    ways of making crash dumps smarter in order to not fill up /var, which in
>    turn would allow us to always have it on. Maybe that is the right path?

All non-trivial software has bugs and eventually crashes.  I don't 
expect this to be a surprise to someone installing a UNIX-like operating 
system.  Note that this isn't the PC-BSD installer, but the FreeBSD 
installer.  Also, there have been long discussions about this and ample 
time for other patches to be developed but they haven't.  If you want 
this changed, implement the alternate solution.  Until then this is 
better than not having it at all.

-- 
John Baldwin