[gentoo-dev] Re: openrc portage news item

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

Dirkjan Ochtman posted on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 09:21:48 +0200 as excerpted:

> On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 07:30, justin <jlec@gentoo.org> wrote:
>> To me, it doesn't makes it totally clear that you screw everything when
>> rebooting before following the guide. Perhaps this should be made much
>> clearer.
> 
> Huh?
> 
> "After you install these packages, please do not reboot your system
> until you follow the upgrade guide located at
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/openrc-migration.xml.
> 
> It is important that you follow the guide as soon as possible after
> these packages are upgraded. Otherwise, there is a chance that your
> system will not reboot properly."
> 
> Seem quite clear to me.

From my read, while it does actually say it's important, the politeness 
with which it does so don't well convey the true importance and urgency of 
the situation.

If there's a fire, you don't say "Please, excuse me for interrupting, but 
there's a fire and at your convenience, please make your way to the 
exit."  Rather, it's "*FIRE*!  Please STAY CALM.  WALK DON'T RUN.  The 
exit is OVER THERE. Make your way to it IMMEDIATELY!"

So more along the lines of:

"""
After installing these packages, please DO NOT REBOOT
until you follow the upgrade guide located at
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/openrc-migration.xml.

If you do not follow the guide as soon as possible after
these packages are upgraded and you reboot or crash
without doing so, the system will likely fail to
boot properly, and you may be looking at some time in
manual recovery mode to fix it.
"""

Yes, the DO NOT REBOOT is shouting, not exactly polite,
but that's arguably what's called for in this situation.

-- 
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