debconf-get-selections [--installer]

Output the current debconf database in a format understandable by debconf-set-selections.

To dump the debconf database of the debian-installer, from var/log/debian-installer/cdebconf, use the —installer parameter.

debconf-set-selections file
debconf-get-selections | ssh newhost debconf-set-selections

--verbose, -v
    verbose output

--checkonly, -c
    only check the input file format, do not save changes to database

debconf-set-selections can be used to pre-seed the debconf database with answers, or to change answers in the database. Each question will be marked as seen to prevent debconf from asking the question interac- tively.

Reads from a file if a filename is given, otherwise from stdin.

Only use this command to seed debconf values for packages that will be or are installed. Otherwise you can end up with values in the database for uninstalled packages that will not go away, or with worse problems involving shared values. It is recommended that this only be used to seed the database if the originating machine has an identical install.

The data is a series of lines. Lines beginning with a # character are comments. Blank lines are ignored. All other lines set the value of one question, and should contain four values, each separated by one character of whitespace.

The first value is the name of the package that owns the question. The second is the name of the question, the third value is the type of this question, and the fourth value (through the end of the line) is the value to use for the answer of the question.