[Debconf-devel] Bug#589519: debconf-set-selections does not work with values containing '#'

[Andreas Beckmann]

Package: debconf
Version: 1.5.38
Severity: normal
File: /usr/bin/debconf-set-selections

debconf-set-selections does not work to preseed values that contain the
character '#'. So checking a preseed file that uses a partman recipe is
not possible, as that recipe format utilizes the '#'.

An excerpt from squeeze's example-pressed.txt is attached, it produces
the following errors:

    # debconf-set-selections [-c] recipes.txt
    warning: Unknown type 2, skipping line 18
    warning: Unknown type 2, skipping line 21
    error: parse error on line 22: '    .'

Be aware that there might be the following "misuse" of '\' line
continuation and '#':

    foobar foo/bar string \
    # is this a comment or the value for variable foo/bar ???

According to the manpage, embedded '#' should be allowed:

    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, ...
    Lines can be continued to the next line by ending them with a "\"
    character.

Andreas

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0
  APT prefers oldstable
  APT policy: (800, 'oldstable'), (700, 'testing'), (600, 'unstable'), (130, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages debconf depends on:
ii  debconf-i18n                  1.5.36.1   full internationalization support 
ii  perl-base                     5.10.1-17  minimal Perl system

Versions of packages debconf recommends:
ii  apt-utils                     0.8.10.3   APT utility programs

Versions of packages debconf suggests:
ii  debconf-doc               1.5.38         debconf documentation
ii  debconf-utils             1.5.36.1       debconf utilities
ii  dialog                    1.1-20100428-1 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe
ii  libgnome2-perl            1.042-2        Perl interface to the GNOME librar
pn  libnet-ldap-perl          <none>         (no description available)
pn  libqtcore4-perl           <none>         (no description available)
pn  libqtgui4-perl            <none>         (no description available)
pn  libterm-readline-gnu-perl <none>         (no description available)
ii  perl                      5.10.1-17      Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  whiptail                  0.52.11-1      Displays user-friendly dialog boxe

-- debconf information excluded