[Debconf-devel] Bug#1124774: debconf-doc: Where is the user’s guide?

[Chris Hofstaedtler]

On Tue, Jan 06, 2026 at 04:02:48PM +0100, Manny wrote:
[..]
> Running “aptitude show debconf-doc” shows:
> 
> > This package contains lots of additional documentation for Debconf,
> > including the debconf user's guide, documentation about using
> > different backend databases via the /etc/debconf.conf file, and a
> > developer's guide to debconf.
> 
> This states that there is a “debconf user's guide”. When working on
> Debian offline, such a thing would be indispensible. But it apparently
> does not exist in that package. After installing debconf-doc, I
> checked /usr/share/doc/debconf-doc and only see NEWS, copyright, and a
> changelog.

/usr/share/doc/debconf/README says:

| The main sources of documentation on debconf for users are:
| 
| 	- The debconf(7) man page is a complete debconf user's guide.
| 	- The debconf.conf(5) man page is useful reading if you want to use
| 	  a different debconf database setup.


> The man page for debconf(1) does not pass for a user’s guide. The
> debconf(7) man page gives some more information but still could not
> pass for a user’s guide.

> Where are all the configuration fields
> documented?

This documentation cannot exist in debconf(-doc), as *packages using 
debconf* define the fields and their meaning. This is also true for 
the installer.

Chris