[Debconf-devel] Bug#476873: debconf: displays "codes" from Choices-C instead with LC_ALL=C and ignores LANGUAGE=en

[Frans Pop]

Package: debconf
Version: 1.5.20
Severity: important
Tags: patch

NOTE: there is one issue with the proposed patch; see below!

One issue with debconf is that it will display the "code" values from a 
Choices-C field instead of the descriptive values from the default Choices 
field.
With the increased usage of Choices-C (e.g. in ucf), this is a real problem 
as the "code" values are generally just not descriptive enough.

With current debconf (with 'test' being a script that shows a template using 
Choices-C):
# LC_ALL=C ./test
# LANG=C ./test
# LANGUAGE=C ./test
# LANG=nl ./test # invalid
# LC_ALL=<anything invalid> ./test
=> Choices are the values from Choices-C!

Second issue is that LANGUAGE=en is not respected:
# LANG= LANGUAGE=en LC_ALL=nl_NL.UTF-8 ../../test
=> Dialog is displayed in Dutch
@langs = en:nl_nl.utf-8:nl_nl:nl.utf-8:nl

A more extensive description of these issues and a test case can be found in 
this thread: http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2008/04/msg00019.html.

Attached a patch that solves these two issues.

Note that this patch effectively obsoletes the use of *-C fields as
"translation" values to be used with the C locale or if i18n is disabled.
I doubt this is used (much) currently and I can also not really see a 
use-case for it.
If there is some reason this is undesired, the only alternative solution 
would seem to be to start a transition from Choices-C to a new special 
field, for example Choices-Coded.

The patch also adds a debugging option: by setting DEBCONF_C_VALUES=true, a 
developer can make debconf display the values from Choices-C.

I had one problem while implementing this new option, which is why one line 
in the patch is commented out in Debconf/Template.pm _getlangs():
	#push (@langs, 'c') if Debconf::Config->c_values eq 'true';

If I uncomment this, I get
   Can't locate object method "c_values" via package "Debconf::Config"
   at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Template.pm line 277.
even though Debconf::Config has been loaded and the other use of the same 
value works without problems.
I have tried a lot of things to solve that, but had to admit defeat. I hope 
that a real perl coder will be able to solve this issue.

Cheers,
FJP

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