Merge branch 'master' into bug224509-rra

[debian/debian-policy.git] / policy.sgml

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index af00c0ee8e08cc3333b99e4bca1a6eb6a9ee8d1a..1e9934cd29e49b489cccca7584f84719c1637f09 100644 (file)
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -3557,15 +3557,17 @@ Files:
        <heading>Controlling terminal for maintainer scripts</heading>
 
        <p>
-         The maintainer scripts are guaranteed to run with a
-         controlling terminal and can interact with the user.
-         Because these scripts may be executed with standard output
-         redirected into a pipe for logging purposes, Perl scripts
-         should set unbuffered output by setting <tt>$|=1</tt> so
-         that the output is printed immediately rather than being
-         buffered.
+         Maintainer scripts are not guaranteed to run with a controlling
+         terminal and may not be able to interact with the user.  They
+         must be able to fall back to noninteractive behavior if no
+         controlling terminal is available.  Maintainer scripts that
+         prompt via a program conforming to the Debian Configuration
+         Management Specification (see <ref id="maintscriptprompt">) may
+         assume that program will handle falling back to noninteractive
+         behavior.
        </p>
       </sect>
+
       <sect id="exitstatus">
        <heading>Exit status</heading>
 
@@ -9537,9 +9539,9 @@ END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
              </p>
 
              <p>
-               The maintainer scripts are guaranteed to run with a
-               controlling terminal and can interact with the user.
-               See <ref id="controllingterminal">.
+               The maintainer scripts are not guaranteed to run with a
+               controlling terminal and may not be able to interact with
+               the user.  See <ref id="controllingterminal">.
              </p>
            </item>