[Debconf-devel] Bug#617618: debconf: dpkg-reconfigure -a fails with exit 2. It should report the package causing the failure!

[Jan Christoph Uhde]

Package: debconf
Version: 1.5.38
Severity: normal


dpkg-reconfigure -a -u
....
** initializing cache. This may take a while **
dpkg-trigger: dpkg-trigger must be called from a maintainer script (or with a --by-package option)

dpkg-reconfigure should report which package causes the failure and
continue with the rest. I was not able using htop and ps auxf to find
out which package was the reason. When --all is used a flag could be
set to make the script a bit more verbose. is simply used 

print STDERR "$0: ".sprintf(gettext("now at package %s"), $pkg)."\n";

maybe it is better to make it verbose via a -v or --verbose flag
anyway the user should get some feedback other than the exit status.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.37-2-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages debconf depends on:
ii  debconf-i18n                  1.5.38     full internationalization support 
ii  perl-base                     5.10.1-17  minimal Perl system

Versions of packages debconf recommends:
ii  apt-utils                     0.8.11.5   APT utility programs

Versions of packages debconf suggests:
pn  debconf-doc               <none>         (no description available)
pn  debconf-utils             <none>         (no description available)
ii  dialog                    1.1-20100428-1 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe
pn  libgnome2-perl            <none>         (no description available)
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                  0.52.11-2      Displays user-friendly dialog boxe

-- debconf information:
  debconf-apt-progress/preparing:
  debconf-apt-progress/title:
  debconf-apt-progress/info:
  debconf-apt-progress/media-change:
  debconf/frontend: Dialog
  debconf/priority: high