[Debconf-devel] Bug#387895: SUBST command return message does not have proper format

[martin f krafft]

Package: debconf
Version: 1.4.30.13
Severity: normal

It looks like the response to a SUBST command does not start out
with a status code. As a result, confmodule is trying to call the
shell return function with a non-numeric argument (abbreviated):

+ db_subst mdadm/initrdstart msg 'If your system ...'
+ _db_cmd 'SUBST mdadm/initrdstart' msg 'If your system ...'
+ echo 'SUBST mdadm/initrdstart' msg 'If your system has ...'
+ local 'IFS=
'
+ local _LINE
+ read -r _LINE
+ RET=If you know ...
+ return If
/tmp/mdadm.config.270949: line 42: return: If: numeric argument required



The problem may also be related to the fact that the message I am
substituting is an (escaped) string spanning three paragraphs, and
since this version of debconf does not have debconf-escape, it may
not be able to deal. METAGET, which I called to get the text for the
SUBST, only returned the first paragraph, and the value assigned to
RET by SUBST is the second paragraph. No sign of the third
paragraph.

This is the .config file btw:
  http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/pkg-mdadm/mdadm/trunk/debian/mdadm.config?op=file&rev=0&sc=0

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (750, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (250, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17-2-686
Locale: LANG=en_GB, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages debconf depends on:
ii  debconf-i18n                  1.5.4      full internationalization support 
ii  perl-base                     5.8.8-6.1  The Pathologically Eclectic Rubbis

Versions of packages debconf recommends:
ii  apt-utils                     0.6.45     APT utility programs

-- debconf information excluded

-- 
 .''`.     martin f. krafft <madduck at debian.org>
: :'  :    proud Debian developer, author, administrator, and user
`. `'`     http://people.debian.org/~madduck http://debiansystem.info
  `-  Debian - when you have better things to do than fixing systems
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