[Debconf-devel] Bug#537870: debconf: Make libterm-readline-gnu-perl a Recommends?

[Tim Retout]

Package: debconf
Version: 1.5.27
Severity: wishlist

The resolution to bug #183970 was to not present default values in the
Readline frontend if using Term::ReadLine::Stub.  This means that if
libterm-readline-gnu-perl is not installed, hitting enter at the
prompt will not use the default value (as would happen in most other
frontends), but will give the empty string.  This means people hit
bugs like #407761.

In fact, the default value is not even presented to the user, so often
they will not know what a sensible value to enter would be.  And
without libterm-readline-gnu-perl, the frontend doesn't really deserve
the name 'Readline'. :)

Since it is always possible for Dialog to fall back to Readline, and
since the interface is verging on unusable without the extension, I
think it is worth considering the use of 'Recommends' instead of
'Suggests'.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.30-1-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages debconf depends on:
ii  debconf-i18n                  1.5.27     full internationalization support 
ii  perl-base                     5.10.0-24  minimal Perl system

Versions of packages debconf recommends:
ii  apt-utils                     0.7.21     APT utility programs

Versions of packages debconf suggests:
pn  debconf-doc               <none>         (no description available)
pn  debconf-utils             <none>         (no description available)
ii  dialog                    1.1-20080819-1 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe
ii  gnome-utils               2.26.0-1       GNOME desktop utilities
ii  libgnome2-perl            1.042-2        Perl interface to the GNOME librar
pn  libnet-ldap-perl          <none>         (no description available)
pn  libqt-perl                <none>         (no description available)
pn  libterm-readline-gnu-perl <none>         (no description available)
ii  perl                      5.10.0-24      Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  whiptail                  0.52.10-4      Displays user-friendly dialog boxe

-- debconf information excluded