[Debconf-devel] Bug#657626: debconf: Does not show "unsupported command" error in DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer output

[Matthijs Kooijman]

Package: debconf
Version: 1.5.41
Severity: minor
Tags: patch

Hi folks,

just ran into an issue with debconf's debug logging, which I'm preparing
a patch for.

The issue is simple: When confmodule sends an unknown command to
debconf, it replies with:

  "Unsupported command \"$command\" (full line was \"$_\") received from confmodule.";

However, this is only sent to confmodule (and possibly ignored there).
You would expect anything sent to confmodule to be printed when setting
DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer, but that doesn't happen for this error.

To reproduce, create this 'unknown-command' script:

	#!/bin/sh

	. /usr/share/debconf/confmodule

	echo foo >&3

Then run debconf:

	matthijs at grubby:~$ DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer debconf ./unknown-command
	debconf: DbDriver "passwords" warning: could not open /var/cache/debconf/passwords.dat: Permission denied
	debconf (developer): starting ./unknown-command
	debconf (developer): <-- foo

Notice that no reply is shown for the "foo" command. When injecting a
tee into the stdin of ./unknown-command, you'll see that there is
really an error reply.

I'm working on the simple patch now, I'll git-sendmail it over when I finish it
in a minute.

Gr.

Matthijs