Guidance on wiki edits (made one, got changed)

starfry · 2014-10-06 10:22:21

Hi there,

I am just looking for a little guidance to help me make the correct positive contribution to the community.

I made an [edit|https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=GnuPG&oldid=338675] the other day to add information that I would have found useful had it been there already. I'd spent a quite a while trying to work out why I was having problem, found the solution via Google, fixed my issue and then thought I'd share the additional information. So I meade an edit.

I just checked in and found it was since [altered|https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=GnuPG&oldid=338684] citing a *dubious workaround*.

So, I'd just like some clarification of the right way to go about things...

I encounter a problem and find a solution. That solution involves changing a symlink that was laid down by an Arch package. If doing that is a *dubious workaround* then what is the correct way to sort out such a problem? I'm talking in the generic sense here rather than about the specifc issue that I had. In my case the default package configuration would not work on a machine without GTK.

I'd like to contribute in the right way, so guidance appreciated.

Thanks.

Trilby · 2014-10-06 12:25:52

I'm not familiar with pinentry, but I just read the info page for it, and it clearly says that if there is no GUI available (as determined by the DISPLAY environment variable) it will fall back on pinentry-curses automatically. No symlink change should be needed.

If this does not happen, this should likely be reported as a bug in pinentry. Whether it is a software bug or a documentation error, if the behavior does not match what is described in the documentation, then one or the other should be revised.

But as you ask about general approaches: generally it is a bad idea to change pacman-managed symlinks as they will be overwritten whenever the package is upgraded.

EDIT: the gpg-agent info page also describes an option to specify which pinentry program should be called.

EDIT: or yet another find as one of the first page of google results for your initial problem: http://www.bsdnexus.com/blog/tag/gpg-agent

Last edited by Trilby (2014-10-06 12:31:04)

starfry · 2014-10-06 12:57:26

Thanks for the feeback trilby. Yes that link was the one I found that let to me fixing my problem. Without wanting to get too far off the generic topic, the solution in the link is for the agent and doesn't apply to the creation of keys (as far as I can tell that uses a different config file that doesn't support the suggested config item), but it did show me what the problem was. Perhaps I should raise my query with the package maintainer? Would that be more appropriate on the mailing list or on the foum (I am on both) ?

jasonwryan · 2014-10-06 16:14:03

Regarding wiki edits: if in doubt, add a note on the talk page and invite some comment on your proposed change.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-10-06 10:22:21

Guidance on wiki edits (made one, got changed)

#2 2014-10-06 12:25:52

Re: Guidance on wiki edits (made one, got changed)

#3 2014-10-06 12:57:26

Re: Guidance on wiki edits (made one, got changed)

#4 2014-10-06 16:14:03

Re: Guidance on wiki edits (made one, got changed)

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