NAME

       debconf-apt-progress - install packages using debconf to display a progress bar

SYNOPSIS

        debconf-apt-progress [--] command [args ...]
        debconf-apt-progress --config
        debconf-apt-progress --start
        debconf-apt-progress --from waypoint --to waypoint [--] command [args ...]
        debconf-apt-progress --stop

DESCRIPTION

       debconf-apt-progress installs packages using debconf to display a progress bar. The given
       command should be any command-line apt frontend; specifically, it must send progress
       information to the file descriptor selected by the "APT::Status-Fd" configuration option,
       and must keep the file descriptors nominated by the "APT::Keep-Fds" configuration option
       open when invoking debconf (directly or indirectly), as those file descriptors will be
       used for the debconf passthrough protocol.

       The arguments to the command you supply should generally include -y (for apt-get or
       aptitude) or similar to avoid the apt frontend prompting for input. debconf-apt-progress
       cannot do this itself because the appropriate argument may differ between apt frontends.

       The --start, --stop, --from, and --to options may be used to create a progress bar with
       multiple segments for different stages of installation, provided that the caller is a
       debconf confmodule. The caller may also interact with the progress bar itself using the
       debconf protocol if it so desires.

       debconf locks its config database when it starts up, which makes it unfortunately
       inconvenient to have one instance of debconf displaying the progress bar and another
       passing through questions from packages being installed. If you're using a multiple-
       segment progress bar, you'll need to eval the output of the --config option before
       starting the debconf frontend to work around this. See "EXAMPLES" in the EXAMPLES section
       below.

OPTIONS

       --config
           Print environment variables necessary to start up a progress bar frontend.

       --start
           Start up a progress bar, running from 0 to 100 by default. Use --from and --to to use
           other endpoints.

       --from waypoint
           If used with --start, make the progress bar begin at waypoint rather than 0.

           Otherwise, install packages with their progress bar beginning at this "waypoint". Must
           be used with --to.

       --to waypoint
           If used with --start, make the progress bar end at waypoint rather than 100.

           Otherwise, install packages with their progress bar ending at this "waypoint". Must be
           used with --from.

       --stop
           Stop a running progress bar.

       --no-progress
           Avoid starting, stopping, or stepping the progress bar. Progress messages from apt,
           media change events, and debconf questions will still be passed through to debconf.

       --dlwaypoint percentage
           Specify what percent of the progress bar to use for downloading packages.  The
           remainder will be used for installing packages. The default is to use 15% for
           downloading and the remaining 85% for installing.

       --logfile file
           Send the normal output from apt to the given file.

       --logstderr
           Send the normal output from apt to stderr. If you supply neither --logfile nor
           --logstderr, the normal output from apt will be discarded.

       --  Terminate options. Since you will normally need to give at least the -y argument to
           the command being run, you will usually need to use -- to prevent that being
           interpreted as an option to debconf-apt-progress itself.

EXAMPLES

       Install the GNOME desktop and an X window system development environment within a progress
       bar:

        debconf-apt-progress -- aptitude -y install gnome x-window-system-dev

       Install the GNOME, KDE, and XFCE desktops within a single progress bar, allocating 45% of
       the progress bar for each of GNOME and KDE and the remaining 10% for XFCE:

        #! /bin/sh
        set -e
        case $1 in
          '')
            eval "$(debconf-apt-progress --config)"
            "$0" debconf
            ;;
          debconf)
            . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
            debconf-apt-progress --start
            debconf-apt-progress --from 0 --to 45 -- apt-get -y install gnome
            debconf-apt-progress --from 45 --to 90 -- apt-get -y install kde
            debconf-apt-progress --from 90 --to 100 -- apt-get -y install xfce4
            debconf-apt-progress --stop
            ;;
        esac

RETURN CODE

       The exit code of the specified command is returned, unless the user hit the cancel button
       on the progress bar. If the cancel button was hit, a value of 30 is returned. To avoid
       ambiguity, if the command returned 30, a value of 3 will be returned.

AUTHORS

       Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>

       Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

                                            2011-06-22                    DEBCONF-APT-PROGRESS(1)