Debian Bug report logs - #367497
debconf: With noninteractive frontend, debconf should print "error" templates to stderr

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: debconf: With noninteractive frontend, debconf should print "error" templates to stderr

Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 14:49:12 +0200

Package: debconf
Version: 1.4.30.13
Severity: normal

Using a template with type "error" usually means that installation will
not proceed successfully (otherwise it seems like abuse of the type).
In the noninteractive frontend, such messages are not displayed on the
terminal.  They are sent by mail, but on many systems no mail is
configured, or reading mail has to be done on a different system, or
similar.  

Therefore users who encounter a problem that results in a debconf error
and a (config or postinst) script failing are left without information
how to fix the problem.  As I understood it, telling people how to fix
or debug the error  is exactly the purpose of the "error" type.

Therefore I suggest that debconf should print messages of type "error"
to stderr.

See also

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.general/100647/focus=100652

Regards, Frank

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (99, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.16-1-686
Locale: LANG=de_DE@euro, LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro (charmap=ISO-8859-15)

Versions of packages debconf depends on:
ii  debconf-i18n               1.4.30.13     full internationalization support 
ii  perl-base                  5.8.4-8sarge4 The Pathologically Eclectic Rubbis

-- debconf information:
* debconf/priority: medium
* debconf/frontend: Kde

-- 
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)

Message #10 received at 367497@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>

To: Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>, 367497@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: [Debconf-devel] Bug#367497: debconf: With noninteractive frontend, debconf should print "error" templates to stderr

Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 14:44:55 +0100

On Tue, May 16, 2006 at 02:49:12PM +0200, Frank Küster wrote:
> Using a template with type "error" usually means that installation will
> not proceed successfully (otherwise it seems like abuse of the type).
> In the noninteractive frontend, such messages are not displayed on the
> terminal.  They are sent by mail, but on many systems no mail is
> configured, or reading mail has to be done on a different system, or
> similar.  
> 
> Therefore users who encounter a problem that results in a debconf error
> and a (config or postinst) script failing are left without information
> how to fix the problem.  As I understood it, telling people how to fix
> or debug the error  is exactly the purpose of the "error" type.
> 
> Therefore I suggest that debconf should print messages of type "error"
> to stderr.

I agree. A similar note from joeyh is in debconf's TODO file:

* Just because it's noninteractive doesn't mean it can't output to the
  console. I think it should do so, at least for errors (in addition to
  mailing them). That way if an error is displayed and the package install
  fails you don't just see it dying, you immediately see why.

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@debian.org]

Message #17 received at 367497@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Emmet Hikory <emmet.hikory@gmail.com>

To: 367497@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#367497: debconf: With noninteractive frontend, debconf should print "error" templates to stderr

Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2011 01:10:52 +0900

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Tags: patch

    Attached is a patch that seems to generate the desired output in
this situation.  The display implementation in NonInteractive is based
very strongly on the Teletype implementation, although with
presumptions of fixed console width and infinite console length.  I've
chosen to duplicate the posting of the message in
Element/NonInteractive/Error.pm rather than migrate all the sendmail
handling to display() with the intention of providing the least
invasive patch.

    Behaviour has been verified by attempting the install of
ltsp-client-core in a recent sid chroot with debconf 1.5.40 and with
the results of 1.5.40 after applying the patch.  In the first case,
one is presented with notice of the failure to install from the
preinst.  In the second case, one is presented by both the message
from the template and the message from the preinst.  Unapplying the
workaround in ltsp-client-core is unlikely to happen until a debconf
fixing this bug is present in stable, in the interest of supporting
backports (given an expectation of versioned predepends).

-- 
Emmet HIKORY

[367497.patch (application/octet-stream, attachment)]

Message #24 received at 367497-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>

To: 367497-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#367497: fixed in debconf 1.5.42

Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:47:35 +0000

Source: debconf
Source-Version: 1.5.42

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
debconf, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

debconf-doc_1.5.42_all.deb
  to main/d/debconf/debconf-doc_1.5.42_all.deb
debconf-i18n_1.5.42_all.deb
  to main/d/debconf/debconf-i18n_1.5.42_all.deb
debconf-utils_1.5.42_all.deb
  to main/d/debconf/debconf-utils_1.5.42_all.deb
debconf_1.5.42.dsc
  to main/d/debconf/debconf_1.5.42.dsc
debconf_1.5.42.tar.gz
  to main/d/debconf/debconf_1.5.42.tar.gz
debconf_1.5.42_all.deb
  to main/d/debconf/debconf_1.5.42_all.deb



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 367497@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org> (supplier of updated debconf package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


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Hash: SHA256

Format: 1.8
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:08:49 +0000
Source: debconf
Binary: debconf debconf-i18n debconf-doc debconf-utils
Architecture: source all
Version: 1.5.42
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Debconf Developers <debconf-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Changed-By: Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>
Description: 
 debconf    - Debian configuration management system
 debconf-doc - debconf documentation
 debconf-i18n - full internationalization support for debconf
 debconf-utils - debconf utilities
Closes: 367497 560317 636241 636621 641106 651642 654798 656110 657264
Changes: 
 debconf (1.5.42) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   [ Joey Hess ]
   * File DbDriver now creates the directory for the file if it is missing.
     (All other DbDrivers that write files already did this.) Closes: #636621
 .
   [ Emmet Hikory ]
   * Display error messages in noninteractive frontend (Closes: #367497)
 .
   [ Debconf translations ]
   * Polish (Michał Kułach).  Closes: #657264
 .
   [ Manpages translations ]
   * German updated.
   * Portugese updated (Américo Monteiro).
   * Spanish updated. Closes: #636241
   * Sinhala; (Danishka Navin).  Closes: #641106
   * Russian updated. Closes: #656110
 .
   [ Programs translations ]
   * Norwegian Bokmål updated. Closes: #654798
 .
   [ Joey Hess ]
   * Add a belt-and-suspenders test that Text::CharWidth::mblen is not
     returning bogus values, before using Text::WrapI18n. See #641957
   * Avoid an uninitialized value warning when a blank line is received
     from the client. Closes: #651642
 .
   [ Colin Watson ]
   * Remove all hardcoded executable paths, using a new Debconf::Path module.
 .
   [ Raphaël Hertzog ]
   * Set environment variables expected by maintainer scripts. Closes:
     #560317
   * Do not hardcode the path of maintainer scripts, in order to support the
     multiarch layout.
 .
   [ Colin Watson ]
   * Process any newly pending triggers after running maintainer scripts.
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 7ab37ecce65ab70847e3e5c3844da10163f1a23c 952984 debconf_1.5.42.tar.gz
 6a6fb86317708c45f8c66a29af807dfdc938fa02 170458 debconf_1.5.42_all.deb
 16a50c5d078b860625081e35ae009b37b211fedc 226000 debconf-i18n_1.5.42_all.deb
 bbdb9e695dc73db0afa4a6d45c15f3f6fe40b0a2 310256 debconf-doc_1.5.42_all.deb
 24b2d0574305f6411b857c96294f8867110bde49 54850 debconf-utils_1.5.42_all.deb
Checksums-Sha256: 
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Files: 
 380b3b3a7345ef1735fd1a7a58513e4c 1978 admin optional debconf_1.5.42.dsc
 f2cb612f90b22f9e491152b30586b963 952984 admin optional debconf_1.5.42.tar.gz
 607c343d594eb74aa5b9686aa79b6e69 170458 admin important debconf_1.5.42_all.deb
 7de1aa8ae228778ccab3ee958e60642d 226000 localization important debconf-i18n_1.5.42_all.deb
 9f474638a2553a2b8cdbcaf39d064101 310256 doc optional debconf-doc_1.5.42_all.deb
 024c9e4a2b864c4d0bec9ce25a3480ac 54850 devel optional debconf-utils_1.5.42_all.deb

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